His wife knows he had cards. She knew he had a lot of cards.

What she did not know was what any of them were worth, which ones mattered, where the receipts were, or that the two boxes in the hall closet were not the same as the seven storage bins in the garage.

She called an estate attorney. He was good at his job. He had handled hundreds of estates, knew probate law front to back, and treated her situation with care.

He had also never graded a card in his life, did not know what PSA meant, and had no frame of reference for why one cardboard rectangle was worth $12 and another was worth $4,000.

The collection went through probate. The process took eleven months. By the time it cleared, her brother-in-law had already sold three storage bins to the first dealer who knocked on the door.

He thought he got a fair price. He had no idea what fair looked like.

This version of this story happens in the hobby every year. It can happen to any of us if we don’t have a plan.

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The Collection Nobody Can Find

Here is the first problem when a collector dies without a plan: nobody knows what exists.

Not your spouse. Not your kids. Not your estate attorney.

Your brain holds the inventory. Your account on eBay or PSA holds part of the picture.

Your receipts are in a folder on a shelf somewhere, or in your email, or you stopped saving them after 2021 because you knew what you paid.

If you have never written down what you own, what you paid, and what it is currently worth, your collection is invisible to the people who will inherit it.

An estate attorney cannot protect what they cannot identify. A trustee cannot distribute what they cannot value.

Your heirs cannot make good decisions about assets they do not understand.

The card you paid $3,400 for at a show in Las Vegas looks like a cardboard rectangle to someone who does not collect.

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What Probate Does to a Collection

Most collectors assume their family will figure it out. The problem is probate does not wait for anyone to get up to speed.

In most states, collectibles that do not have a named beneficiary, are not held in a trust, and are not titled to a joint owner go through probate.

That process is public, slow, and expensive. Depending on the estate and the state, it takes anywhere from nine months to three years.

During that time, the collection is part of the estate. Your heirs may not be able to sell anything.

The card you have been holding because the comp sales are climbing does not care that your estate is in probate. The market moves without you.

Then there is the valuation problem. Probate courts require estates to be valued. For a house, that is a real estate appraisal.

For a stock portfolio, that is a brokerage statement. For a sports card collection, most appraisers have never been to a card show. If your heirs hire someone who does not understand the hobby, the valuation will be wrong.

Too low and assets sell for a fraction of market value. Too high and the estate will owe taxes on phantom value.

Neither outcome is what you spent decades building toward.

What Your Attorney Does Not Know

I paid $4,500 for a trust.

Good estate attorney. Well-regarded in the field. He had handled plenty of clients with complex portfolios, and he treated my situation with professionalism.

He had also never heard of a PSA population report, did not know what triggered the 28% collectibles capital gains rate, and had no idea how to structure a card held as a long-term investment differently from one being flipped for short-term income.

He drafted a trust that technically covered my collection. The strategy inside that trust was built for a stock portfolio. It was not built for what I actually own.

Being vulnerable, I felt ripped off. Not because the attorney was bad at his job. Because nobody who understood the hobby was in the room.

That frustration is the reason Revolutionary Wealth built Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors. Not to compete with what estate attorneys already do well. To fill the gap between standard estate planning and the specific reality of collector wealth.

Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors drafts trusts in all 50 states. Our clients get CPA services and estate planning attorney access.

More than that, they work with people who understand what they are planning around. We know what a BGS 9.5 means. We know what triggers the 28% rate.

We know how to structure a collection inside a trust so the document actually matches the asset.

That is the difference.

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The Four Things Every Collector Needs

You do not need to overhaul your entire estate to protect your collection. You need four things.

An inventory. A written, accessible record of what you own, what you paid, and what it is currently worth. This does not need to be elaborate.

A spreadsheet with card name, purchase date, purchase price, current estimated value, and physical location is enough. Update it twice a year. Keep it somewhere your family can actually find it.

A trust or named beneficiary structure. A revocable living trust keeps your collection out of probate and lets you control who receives what, on what timeline, and under what conditions.

If a trust is not right for your situation, you at minimum need to understand how your state handles personal property without a named beneficiary. Most states have a default answer. It is rarely the one you would choose.

An executor or trustee who understands the hobby. This is the step most collectors skip. If the person settling your estate has never been to a card show, cannot read a BGS label, and cannot tell a 1/1 printer plate from a base parallel, they will make decisions on your behalf that you would not have made yourself.

Name someone who collects to help with decision-making.

Documentation of your strategy. If you are holding certain cards as long-term investments and others as trading inventory, that distinction matters for tax purposes.

The IRS treats them differently. Your estate will too.

Write it down. Not for you. For the people who come after you.

Your Collection is a 1/1. Your Plan Should Be Too.

I reference Shohei Ohtani’s 2018 Batting Chrome #1 in PSA 10 condition sometimes when clients ask about the cost of planning. Pop 5,181 and it’s going for $4,513.

A collector-specific estate plan through Revolutionary Wealth and Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors costs less than that card.

Hilariously enough, that framing lands every single time. Not because the math is complicated. Because collectors understand value instantly when you put it in card terms.

Your plan for your collection and your family is a 1/1. There are no comps. There is no reprint.

You build it once, you update it as the collection grows, and the people you love do not spend eleven months in probate trying to figure out what you were building all along.

Revolutionary Wealth works with collectors across the country who are building real wealth in and outside of the hobby.

Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors handles the trust drafting, CPA work, and estate planning so the collection you spent years assembling does not get sold for a fraction of its value by someone who never understood what it was.

If you want to know what a collector-specific tax and estate plan looks like for your situation, you can start a conversation with me below.

Book a Free Collector Strategy Call

Have You Had the Talk?

Your ten-year-old self just got super anxious reading that. Get your mind out of the gutter, you sicko!!

When I mean the talk, I’m referring to calling up a buddy in the hobby and having a what-if conversation. This does not have to be super serious; it can be very lighthearted.

My good friend from college Josh and I text about cards, all the time. I’ve said to my wife, if something happens, to call Josh.

It’s because Josh and I have had this discussion around our wives interacting with the hobby from the outside looking in. Thinking we are absolutely out of our minds buying pieces of cardboard.

He is someone that I know will not take advantage of her and will immediately be able to point everything in the right direction beyond what’s on paper and written down.

Him and I don’t even collect the same things, so he definitely doesn’t want my cards ha-ha.

We all have that person in the hobby, have the conversation. It’s a free step forward towards protecting your collection and family.

See you next time, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Asset protection plans should be developed and implemented well before problems arise. Due to the fraudulent transfer laws, asset transfers that occur close in proximity to the filing of a lawsuit or bankruptcy can be interpreted by the court as a fraudulent transfer. Proper structuring of these assets is imperative please seek proper legal and tax advice prior to engaging in re-titling/structuring of any assets. Please note that laws are subject to change and can have an impact on your asset protection strategy.

• MSOs provide significant tax advantages including deductible management fees, asset depreciation, and opportunities to fund tax-advantaged retirement plans like cash balance plans

• Business owners can use MSO structures to reduce taxable income by up to $300,000+ annually through cash balance plan contributions while building long-term wealth

• The model enables rapid business scaling through centralized administrative services, economies of scale, and improved operational efficiency across multiple locations

• Proper MSO formation requires careful legal structuring to comply with industry-specific regulations while maximizing financial and operational benefits

Last week I broke down what the MSO model is and how the structure works — the separation between the professional entity and the management services organization, the Management Services Agreement, and the operational mechanics behind it.

If you missed Part 1, start there. The mechanics matter before the math makes sense.

This week: the tax benefits, the cash balance plan numbers that change the trajectory entirely, and what it actually costs to build the structure.

This is where the physical therapy practice owner’s story gets its ending.

Pull up a chair.

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Tax Benefits of the MSO Model

This is where most practice owners lean forward.

The separation of clinical and administrative functions creates multiple tax optimization opportunities that simply aren’t available in a traditional practice structure.

Management Fee Deductions Are the Foundation

The professional entity deducts management fees paid to the MSO as ordinary business expenses. This reduces the taxable income of the professional corporation or limited liability company.

The income moves to the MSO — an entity you control — where different tax planning strategies apply. You’re not eliminating the income. You’re moving it somewhere the planning tools are better.

Asset Ownership and Depreciation

When forming an MSO, non-clinical assets — medical equipment, computer systems, office furniture, real estate — can be transferred to or purchased by the MSO.

The MSO then claims depreciation deductions on those tangible assets, further reducing taxable income. Maintenance, upgrades, and replacement costs are deductible too.

Entity Structure Flexibility

MSOs can be formed as corporations, limited liability companies, or partnerships, each offering different tax treatment. Corporate MSOs may benefit from lower corporate tax rates.

LLC structures might provide pass-through taxation advantages. The right choice depends on your overall tax strategy and ownership objectives. I am not a fan of one-size-fits-all here.

Employee Benefit Plans

The MSO can establish comprehensive benefit programs — health insurance, retirement plans, and other fringe benefits — for its employees.

That includes business owners who work for the MSO in administrative capacities. These benefits are deductible to the MSO while providing real compensation to the people running it.

Here’s the practical math: a multi-location medical practice transitions to an MSO structure. The professional corporation pays $480,000 annually in management fees to the MSO. That $480,000 is deductible, reducing taxable income by $480,000.

At a combined tax rate of 35%, that’s approximately $168,000 in annual tax savings. The MSO receives the income but offsets it with operational expenses, asset depreciation, and employee benefit contributions.

Solve two, three, sometimes four different tax problems with one vehicle. That’s what the MSO structure makes possible.

Scaling and Operating Benefits with the MSO Model

The tax benefits alone justify the conversation. The operational advantages make the case even stronger.

Economies of Scale

When multiple locations share administrative services through a single MSO, per-unit costs drop across the board. Billing departments, IT systems, human resources functions — centralized instead of duplicated at every location.

The cost of one experienced billing director serving five locations is a fraction of five separate coordinators, each running their own system.

Centralized Purchasing Power

An MSO serving multiple locations negotiates from strength. Vendor contracts. Equipment purchases. Insurance policies. Technology licenses.

All of it improves when the volume is combined. Those savings flow directly to the bottom line of every practice location.

Standardized Operations

The MSO develops and implements consistent procedures, protocols, and performance standards across all locations.

This standardization cuts training costs, improves efficiency, and ensures consistent client experiences regardless of location. It’s the difference between running a franchise and managing five independent shops.

Access to Specialized Talent

Instead of each location competing for a great billing manager or IT professional, the MSO employs those specialists centrally.

The cost is distributed across multiple revenue streams. The quality is higher than what any single location could afford independently.

Risk Reduction and Compliance Management

The MSO employs dedicated compliance professionals who track federal and state regulations across all locations. Centralized oversight reduces the risk of regulatory violations and the penalties that come with them.

Here’s what those numbers look like in practice: a law firm operating two offices implements an MSO structure before expanding to eight offices over three years. The MSO centralized billing, IT support, human resources, and compliance.

Operational costs dropped 30% compared to maintaining separate administrative functions at each office. Rapid expansion stayed on track because the infrastructure already existed.

Ignore revenue. Focus on the profit. The MSO structure is built to protect the profit.

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MSO Model for Business Growth and Expansion

The MSO structure is also a growth engine.

Professional practice owners face a specific challenge when they try to scale. Licensing restrictions block outside investors from buying in.

Private equity, family office capital, strategic partners — all prevented from owning the clinical side. The MSO solves that problem directly.

Investment Attraction

Private equity firms and other investors cannot directly invest in professional corporations due to licensing restrictions and corporate practice laws. They can acquire ownership stakes in MSOs.

The economic performance of the professional practice flows to the MSO — and its investors — without violating professional licensing requirements.

This opens access to capital that was previously unavailable to practice owners. Faster expansion. More ambitious growth strategies. And a broader pool of potential buyers when you eventually want to exit.

Faster Expansion

When you add a new location, the existing MSO immediately provides billing, IT, human resources, and compliance support.

No setup time. No hiring administrative staff from scratch. The timeline from location identification to revenue generation compresses significantly.

Enhanced Business Valuations

MSO structures typically produce better business valuations during exit transactions. The separation of clinical and administrative functions allows for more sophisticated valuation approaches.

Scalable administrative capabilities, standardized operations, and diversified revenue streams are all factors that sophisticated buyers assign a premium to.

Consider this: a dental MSO started with three practice locations and grew to 25 locations over five years through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

The proven administrative platform attracted both individual practitioners and private equity investment. Standardized operations and centralized management made that growth possible without sacrificing consistency across locations.

Build the MSO correctly from the beginning and you’re not just building a practice.

You’re building a platform.

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Using MSO to Fund Cash Balance Plans for Tax Reduction

Now we get to the part that changes the math entirely.

At Revolutionary Wealth, cash balance plans are one of the core tools we deploy inside MSO structures.

These defined benefit retirement plans allow business owners to make substantially larger tax-deductible contributions than a traditional 401(k) or profit-sharing plan. Depending on age and compensation, annual contributions can reduce taxable income by $300,000 or more.

A cash balance plan is a type of defined benefit pension plan that promises participants a specific account balance at retirement.

Unlike traditional pension plans, cash balance plans define benefits in terms that resemble defined contribution plans — easier to understand, easier to communicate to participants.

The MSO structure enables business owners to maximize cash balance plan contributions by employing themselves through the MSO.

The MSO establishes the plan covering its employees, including business owners working in administrative capacities. This arrangement allows for substantial tax-deductible contributions while maintaining full compliance with employment and retirement plan regulations.

Here’s the math on a real scenario: a 50-year-old business owner implements an MSO structure and establishes a cash balance plan through the MSO. Based on age and compensation, the plan allows for annual contributions of $275,000.

That contribution is fully deductible to the MSO, reducing taxable income by $275,000. At a combined federal and state tax rate of 40%, that’s approximately $110,000 in annual tax savings.

That’s not an estimate. That’s what the numbers produce.

The contribution is deductible in the year it’s made. No deferral. No waiting. Immediate relief.

Time for a refill — because the next section is about what those contributions actually build over time.

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Building Wealth Through Cash Balance Plans

At Revolutionary Wealth, we help successful business owners implement cash balance plans inside MSO structures. The wealth-building potential of these plans extends far beyond the annual tax deduction.

Long-term wealth accumulation through cash balance plans results from the combination of large annual contributions, tax-deferred investment growth, and compound returns over time.

The 401(k) contribution limit is roughly $24,500 a year in 2026, including catch-up contributions for those over 50. Cash balance plans allow business owners in peak earning years to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a fundamentally different trajectory.

All investment returns inside the plan grow tax-deferred until withdrawal. The full return compounds without annual tax drag.

That compounding effect, applied to large contributions over many years, produces results that traditional savings vehicles simply cannot match.

Here’s what the numbers look like: a business owner contributes $250,000 annually to a cash balance plan for ten years, assuming a 7% annual investment return.

After ten years, the plan contains approximately $3.45 million — about $2.5 million in contributions and nearly $1 million in investment growth.

Plan assets also carry meaningful creditor protection under federal and state law. Business liabilities, lawsuits, financial challenges — retirement plan assets are generally shielded.

For business owners with real exposure, that matters more than most financial projections account for.

At retirement, participants choose between lump-sum distributions or annuity payments. Lump-sum distributions can be rolled to IRAs for continued tax-deferred growth and flexible withdrawal options.

Here’s the complete case study: a medical practice owner implements an MSO structure at 45 and establishes a cash balance plan. Over 15 years to retirement at 60, the owner contributes an average of $225,000 annually.

At 7% annual investment return, the plan accumulates approximately $5.4 million. Tax savings during the accumulation phase total approximately $2.25 million at a 40% marginal rate.

For comparison — if that same owner had been limited to maximum 401(k) contributions of approximately $25,000 annually, the total accumulation over that same 15-year period would be about $600,000.

$600,000 versus $5.4 million.

That’s the difference.

Maple Syrup and Cream

The other day I was about to run and grab some simple syrup for my coffee to stir together with my cream. Grace stopped me and asked, “why don’t you try maple syrup?”

You would have thought she asked if I wanted to see sliced bread invented in front of my eyes. I had never entertained it as a possibility to mix well with black coffee.

Alas I ordered some organic maple syrup from Walmart and blended it with my cream. It’s amazing and dangerously good.

Plus, it has to be healthier than most flavored creamers you can buy off the shelf. Try it and let me know what you think.

See you next time, cheers!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can any business use the MSO model, or is it limited to healthcare?

While MSOs originated in healthcare, the model has expanded to legal firms, accounting practices, veterinary clinics, dental practices, and other professional services. Any business with licensed professionals providing services can potentially benefit from MSO structuring, though specific regulations vary by industry and state.

What are the typical costs associated with establishing and maintaining an MSO?

Initial MSO formation costs range from $15,000 to $50,000 in legal fees, plus state filing fees. Annual maintenance includes legal compliance reviews ($5,000 to $15,000), accounting services ($10,000 to $25,000), and potential consulting fees. Tax savings and operational efficiencies typically provide positive ROI within the first year.

How quickly can a business owner start seeing financial benefits from an MSO structure?

Tax benefits can begin immediately upon MSO formation and execution of the Management Services Agreement. Operational efficiencies typically emerge within 3 to 6 months as administrative functions transfer to the MSO. Cash balance plan contributions can commence in the first plan year, providing immediate tax deductions.

What happens if the business owner wants to sell their practice — does the MSO structure complicate the transaction?

MSO structures can actually enhance business valuations by demonstrating scalable operations and attracting a broader pool of potential buyers, including private equity firms. The separation of assets between MSO and professional entity provides flexibility in structuring transactions, though proper legal guidance is essential for the optimal deal structure.

Are there any risks associated with MSO structures that business owners should be aware of?

Primary risks include regulatory non-compliance leading to licensing issues or financial penalties, improper fee structures violating state laws, and inadequate legal documentation. These risks are mitigated through proper initial structuring with experienced legal counsel and ongoing compliance monitoring.

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

My business and our affiliate were both underwater. We were 25% behind our production goal for the year.

Our affiliate was sitting at 30% short of theirs. Two months left on the calendar and the math was not friendly.

The easy response — the one most business owners make — is to keep pushing and hope the final stretch picks up. Work harder. Trust momentum. Put in more hours.

We did not do that.

We sat down and had a candid conversation about what had to happen. Not vaguely. Not “we need to close more business” or “let’s pick up the pace.”

Specifically. Which clients. Which conversations. Which decisions had to be made on which specific dates within a specific window for us to still hit the number.

We laid out the exact sequence that had to execute.

Then we ran it.

We hit our production goal with 3 business days remaining.

That is not a hustle story. That is a situational awareness story.

And the difference between those two things is the difference between success and failure in business and financial planning.

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What Situational Awareness Is

Anybody with a sports background already understands this concept intuitively.

You are playing football. It is the two-minute warning. You are down by three. You know exactly which plays you are running. You know where to line up.

You know that if a certain route doesn’t open, you go to your checkdown immediately — because time is the resource you cannot recover.

Baseball. You are on the base paths in the seventh inning with two outs. The count goes full. Before the pitch even happens, you already know what you are doing.

Every scenario is pre-processed. Speed, angle, the outfielder’s arm — you have read the situation and prepared your response before the situation demands it.

That is situational awareness. The real-time processing of where you are in the game, what the moment demands, and what has to happen next.

Elite athletes do it without thinking. The great ones make it look effortless because they have rehearsed every scenario until the right response is automatic.

The same thing is true in business. The same thing is true in your financial plan.

The question is whether you are actually doing it.

The Biggest Mistake Business Owners Make

I watch business owners work hard every day. I do not question the effort. What I question is the awareness.

There is a version of running a business that looks like this: January, full of energy and good intentions. February and March, grinding. By July, you have a general sense of whether it has been a good year or a slow one. December hits and you find out the score.

That is not a business strategy. That is hope with a calendar attached.

The biggest mistake I see — from owners I respect, people working genuinely hard — is confusing effort with situational awareness.

You can work 60 hours a week and still not know where you are relative to your goal.

You can care deeply about your business and still not have a clear read on the specific levers that determine whether December 31st is a win or a miss.

Somebody in every organization has to stop and call the moment.

Has to say out loud: this is where we are, this is where we need to be, here is the specific gap, and here is the sequence that closes it.

In most small businesses, that person is the owner. It does not have to stay there. But somebody has to play that role. When nobody does, the two-minute drill never gets called.

Subscribe now to keep reading. Each week I break down the real moves that separate the owners and retirees who win from the ones who wonder what happened.

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The Sequence That Saved November

When my business partner and I sat down the second week of November, we did not talk about effort. We did not motivate each other. We talked about math.

25% short. 30% short. Eight weeks. Here is what has to happen.

We identified which specific conversations needed to happen, with which clients, by which dates. We built a sequence. Not a general plan — a sequence.

This conversation by this date. This decision by this date. This close by this date. If these slip, here is the contingency.

Then we executed it.

Three business days left in December; we crossed the line.

The reason we hit the goal was not that we worked harder in December than we had in October.

The reason we hit the goal is that we knew exactly what had to happen and we called it with enough runway for the sequence to execute.

Situational awareness gave us a window. We used it.

Situational Awareness for Clients

Last year, a client came to me sitting on the fence about an annuity.

Rates were being cut. There was a real sense that the market could correct. The environment was moving. And she was not sure. She wanted more time. She wanted to wait and see.

We had a now-or-never conversation.

Not pressure — I want to be clear about that. It was an honest, direct read of her situation.

Where rates were going. What the market was signaling. What waiting another 30 or 60 days actually cost her in real numbers. What she was trying to protect and what the window for protecting it actually looked like.

She made the decision that day.

Eighteen months later, she is up 35% with 55% principal protection. The market has done what markets do — it has moved, shaken, created the kind of uncertainty that keeps people up at night.

She slept fine. Because she made her decision when the situation called for one, not when she finally felt completely comfortable.

Comfort is not a strategy. Comfort is a feeling. The situation demanded a response. She responded.

That is situational awareness applied to financial planning.

Three Questions Every Owner and Planner Need to Answer

Situational awareness, applied practically, comes down to three questions. Most people cannot answer all three on a given Tuesday in October. Ask yourself right now.

Where are you relative to your goal, specifically?

Not a general sense. Not “we’re doing okay” or “a little behind.”

What is the number? If your production goal is $1.4 million and it is November 7th, what do you need to close in the next eight weeks to still hit it?

Put the number on the table and look at it.

What has to happen, on which specific dates, to close the gap?

Not “we need to pick it up.” Which conversations. Which clients. Which decisions.

The sequence has to be specific enough that you can put it on a calendar. If you cannot schedule it, it is not a plan. It is wishful thinking.

Who is responsible for calling the moment?

This is the question most businesses never ask. Somebody has to hold situational awareness as their job. Somebody has to be the one who stops and reads the game.

In a small business, that is usually the owner. In a financial plan, it is your advisor — or it has to be you.

When nobody owns this role, the two-minute warning comes and goes without anyone noticing.

The Difference Between Success and Failure

My business partner and I did not discover some secret to production in November.

We sat down, called the situation as it was, built a specific sequence, and executed it.

Three business days left. Goal hit.

My client did not stumble into a 35% gain with principal protection. She made a decision when the window was open. The window is gone now.

The people who hit their goals are not smarter than the people who miss them. They are not working harder.

They are more aware of the game they are in, and they have someone — themselves or a trusted advisor — calling the moment when the moment arrives.

The two-minute drill requires someone running it.

Are you situationally aware?

That is the difference.

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

She sat down on a Zoom call with me — her and her business partner, running a thriving physical therapy group across four locations. Between the two practices, they were clearing over $1.2 million a year.

She was doing almost everything right. Good revenue. Solid team. Growing locations. And writing a check to the IRS every April that made her sick.

“Drew,” she said, “every year I sit down with my CPA, and we buy equipment, max out the 401(k), and I still owe more than I can stomach.”

She wasn’t wrong to be frustrated. She was describing exactly what I see with successful practice owners: a great business trapped in the wrong structure. A dollar lost in taxes is a dollar gone forever.

What she needed was an MSO.

Grab your mug and pull up a chair. This one’s going to take a few minutes, but by the end you’ll understand exactly how the MSO model works — and why it might be the most important structure you haven’t built yet.

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What Is the MSO Model

A Management Services Organization is a business entity designed to provide administrative services and operational support to professional practices.

The MSO model creates a clear separation between the delivery of professional services and the management of business operations.

Think of it like a football team. The quarterback is on the field calling plays, making real-time decisions, and running the offense.

But there’s an entire organization behind him — the front office handling contracts, the facilities team managing the stadium, the marketing department selling tickets. They don’t run the ball. But the franchise doesn’t function without them.

That’s the MSO structure. The professional practice — your clinic, law firm, accounting practice — stays on the field. The MSO runs everything behind the scenes.

Here’s what an MSO handles: billing, human resources, payroll management, information technology, marketing, compliance oversight, and facilities management.

The licensed professionals keep full control over clinical decisions, patient care, and professional standards. The MSO runs the business of the business.

This separation solves a specific regulatory problem that trips up a lot of practice owners. In many states, corporate practice of medicine laws prohibits unlicensed individuals from owning medical practices.

Private equity, family members, business partners without a license — all blocked from owning the clinical side. But those same laws typically allow non-licensed entities to provide management services to those practices.

That’s not a loophole. That’s the structure working exactly as designed.

The MSO model was developed in the healthcare industry during the 1990s consolidation wave, when practices needed professional administrative support without surrendering clinical control.

Today it’s used in legal services, accounting firms, veterinary practices, and a growing list of other professional service businesses.

The core principle stays the same regardless of industry: separate the professional from the administrative.

How the MSO Model Works for Business Owners

The operational structure of a management services organization centers on a contractual relationship between two distinct entities: the MSO and the professional entity.

This relationship is formalized through a Management Services Agreement — the MSA — that clearly defines the scope of services, compensation structures, and operational boundaries.

Licensed professionals maintain ownership and control of the professional entity. All authority over professional decisions, patient care protocols, and service delivery standards stays with them. That doesn’t change. What changes is who runs everything else.

The MSO operates as a separate business entity providing comprehensive administrative services. Revenue cycle management. Billing and collections. Payroll. Human resources. IT support. Marketing. Facilities management. Regulatory compliance.

All of it flows through the MSO.

Here’s what this looks like in practice: a dental practice with five clinic locations implements an MSO structure to centralize administrative functions. The dental professional corporation retains ownership of clinical equipment, patient relationships, and treatment decisions.

The MSO handles appointment scheduling, insurance billing, staff payroll, marketing campaigns, lease negotiations, and compliance documentation across all five locations.

Financially, the relationship works through management fees outlined in the MSA. The professional entity pays the MSO a management fee — structured as a percentage of gross revenues, a fixed monthly amount, or a combination of both.

Patient revenues flow to the professional entity, which pays the agreed-upon fee to the MSO. The MSO covers administrative expenses and generates profits for its owners.

That fee structure is the foundation of the tax strategy. The numbers get interesting fast.

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To Be Continued…

In my next post I’m breaking down exactly where the money is.

The tax benefits of the MSO model, the cash balance plan math that lets business owners reduce taxable income by $300,000 or more annually, and what it actually costs to build this structure from the ground up.

Part 2 is where the physical therapy practice owner’s story gets its ending.

Pilgrim Coffee Lavender Honey Latte Review

I was in Kansas City for meetings last week and I stopped by one of my favorite shops, Pilgrim Coffee.

Walking in they had their seasonal board, being honest I normally ignore seasonal drinks. One of the items caught my eye, a lavender honey latte. I hadn’t had a lavender honey latte in years!!

It’s one of my favorite drinks that I don’t see that often, so I had to order it. I subbed normal milk for oat milk; I typically do these days.

That latte was fantastic; it was possibly the best lavender honey latte I’ve ever had. Both flavors were perfectly balanced and came together nicely. Often times you will see that it favors one or the other, this one was a perfect blend of the two flavors.

If you’re in the Overland Park area during the Spring, I would put this as a must try.

See you next time, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

22 years in the same market. Every referral was from a client who had known him since the beginning. His retention was 96%. He had not run a cold call in over a decade.

He wanted to retire. He also could not figure out why nobody would buy his business at the number he expected.

Here is the problem nobody had told him.

His 96% retention was built entirely on him. He was the relationship. Every client in that book called his cell phone. He answered.

He remembered their kids’ names, their health situations, their frustrations with their previous experience. He was the reason they stayed.

Buyers looked at that book and saw a different number. They modeled what retention looks like when that one person steps back. Their answer was 65%, maybe 70% if the transition went well.

The moat was real. The moat was him. And that is exactly what made it a prison.

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What a Moat Actually Is

Warren Buffett popularized the term. The idea is simple: a moat is the thing that keeps competition out.

It is the barrier between your business and the person who would like to have your clients.

In the insurance and financial services world, moats look like this.

Deep personal relationships built over 20 years. A referral network so warm that no new advisor could penetrate it. Niche expertise in a product line most advisors do not fully understand.

A client base loyal enough that they would not take a meeting with your competitor on a bet.

These are real moats. They have genuine economic value.

They are also the most dangerous kind of moat, because they live inside the owner.

The moment you build a moat inside yourself instead of inside the business, the clock starts.

The Three Moats That Become Prisons

You Are the Relationship

This is the most common one. The clients are loyal to you. They trust you because of years of your specific judgment, your specific availability, your specific ability to make a complicated product feel simple.

That is real value. It is also value that cannot be transferred on its own.

A buyer acquiring your book is betting on how much of that loyalty survives the transition. If the answer is “most of it, because there’s already a team involved,” you get a strong multiple.

If the answer is “I’m not sure, he’s really the only one they’ve ever talked to,” the multiple reflects that uncertainty. Every time.

The moat is loyalty. The prison is that the loyalty is to you, not to a system.

You Own the Niche

Some owners build their entire business around one product line. Services in a specific county. One client they grew with over 15 years. A particular affiliate relationship that generated most of their referrals.

The moat is real expertise and market position that competitors cannot easily replicate.

The prison is what happens when the niche shifts. The last two years have shown exactly what CMS changes do to a Medicare-heavy book.

Health insurance agents who built everything around one carrier’s product, or one product type, or one commission structure, discovered that the moat they built was only as durable as the market conditions that created it.

Those same shifts happen in every single business, in every industry, over time.

Expertise is a moat until the thing you’re an expert in stops paying the way it used to.

You Run the Machine

The third moat is operational. You know where everything is. You know which clients need a call in October before they do something impulsive at the end of the year.

You know which clients need service and preparation. You know which providers answer the phone and which ones require a fax from 2007.

That operational knowledge is a moat. Competition cannot replicate it quickly.

The prison is that you cannot leave without taking it with you. The moment you step back, the machine slows down.

Invoices get missed. Clients get confused. The book that ran at 96% retention starts running at something else.

You did not build a business that runs. You built a job that nobody else can do as well as you.

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How to Tell if Your Moat is a Prison

Three questions. Answer them honestly.

If you took a 30-day vacation with no cell service, what would happen to your business?

If a client needed to change their plan and could not reach you, who on your team could handle it from start to finish?

If you told your top 20 clients you were transitioning them to a colleague, what percentage would stay with your company?

If those three answers make you uncomfortable, the moat is a prison.

The uncomfortable answer is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to start doing the work we covered in my last post.

The 3-to-5-year window exists precisely because changing the answers to those questions takes time.

The Way Out is the Same in Every Case

Every moat-turned-prison has the same solution. You have to move the moat from inside you to inside the business.

The relationship moat becomes a business asset when a second person knows your clients and your clients know them. Not as well as they know you. But enough that the relationship survives.

The niche moat becomes a business asset when the expertise is documented. Processes. A service model that does not require your brain to execute every step.

The operational moat becomes a business asset when someone else can run the machine. When the October call list runs because of a system, not because you remembered.

None of this happens in six months. That is the whole point.

The owners who get strong exit multiples are not the ones with the most loyal clients or the deepest expertise. They are the ones who did the work of putting the moat into the business instead of keeping it inside themselves.

That is a 2-to-3-year project, minimum. Which means the time to start is not when you are ready to sell.

The Good News

Here is what I tell owners who have built this kind of business.

The moat is real. The value is real. The problem is structural, not fatal.

A 96% retention rate built on personal relationships is genuinely impressive. The clients who trust you that much will transfer more loyalty than most buyers give them credit for, if the transition is handled deliberately.

A 6-month overlap where you are still present, still accessible, still the face of the relationship while someone else learns the names and the situations, changes the math significantly.

The prison has a door. It just requires building the key before you need it.

Pull up a chair and let’s continue this discussion, together. The work that protects your exit is the same work that makes the business better right now.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

Today is not a discussion about the idea of retirement. The mechanics of an exit.

Someone with a great business. Handfuls of new clients every month or year. Thirty years of relationships. A business that, by the valuation math we covered last week, is worth real money to the right buyer.

They believe that they have a plan. In reality, they are way behind.

Not because they are irresponsible. Because nobody had ever told them what a 3-to-5-year exit actually requires.

They have been told their business is worth something. A valuation and an exit strategy are completely different dynamics.

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The Two Exits Nobody Actually Plans For

The first one is accidental. Someone approaches you with an offer. You weren’t really looking, but the number sounds right and you’re tired enough to say yes.

You leave faster than you expected, for less than you probably could have gotten, and spend the next two years wondering if you should have waited six more months.

The second one is forced. Health, burnout, a bad season, a market that shifted while you were busy serving clients. The exit wasn’t planned because you kept telling yourself you had more time.

Both of these happen all the time. Both of them leave money on the table. And both of them could have looked very different with three to five years of intention behind them.

That third path, the planned exit, is the one nobody talks about because it requires you to do something counterintuitive.

It asks you to start preparing for a sale you don’t need to make yet.

Three to Five Years is the Number. Here’s Why.

You cannot build what a buyer wants to buy in six months.

Buyers are paying for retention history. For documented client files. For systems that prove the book runs without the owner personally managing every renewal call. For a clear picture of what commissions will look like in year two, year three, and year five after they take over.

None of that is built overnight.

If you go to market with 18 months of documented history, a buyer will discount for uncertainty. If you go with 36 months of clean data — complete commission statements, renewal records, organized client files, low churn, demonstrated evidence that the book services itself without you as the single point of contact — you are negotiating from strength.

Three to five years is how long it takes to turn a valuable business into a provably valuable business.

That’s the difference.

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What Buyers Are Actually Paying For

This is the part that surprises most owners.

A buyer is not paying for your relationships. They understand you have them. They are betting on whether those relationships survive the transfer.

What earns a higher multiple is proof that the relationships can survive without you. That means a client who has interacted with at least one other person on your team.

A piece of revenue that came in without you personally making every phone call. A meeting that ran because there was a system for it, not because you showed up.

If you are the business, the business is worth less than if the business has a process.

Buyers do not want to acquire a person. They want to acquire a machine that keeps running after the person leaves.

The owners who get the best multiples are not the ones with the most clients.

They are the ones whose clients would not notice a meaningful difference in service quality if the original owner stepped back to one day a week.

What Has to Be True Before You Go to Market

Not every item here can be built in a year. That is the point.

Before any serious sale conversation, this is what needs to be true.

Every client needs a complete file. Name and sales history. If this does not exist in a form someone else can read and use without calling you, you are not ready to sell.

Tax returns and P&L’s need to be organized and categorized. Not just what you earned in total. Broken down by product type, by provider, by month. Buyers want to run the math themselves. Give them clean data.

Retention metrics matter more than most owners realize. Know your churn rate. Know how many clients you lost last year and why.

If you can show that your business retains at 92% or better over a 36-month period, that number earns a premium. If you cannot show it because you have never tracked it, a buyer will assume the worst.

Compliance needs to be clean. No open complaints. No unresolved issues. No history that becomes a due diligence problem. This is not optional. One issue can kill a deal or cut your multiple significantly.

You need at least one other person who services the business. Even part-time. Even informally.

Buyers want evidence that your clients know someone other than you. If you are the only point of contact for every relationship in your business, you have built yourself a job, not a business.

The First Two Years Are Where the Work Happens

If you have three to five years before you want to exit, the next two years are the ones that matter most.

Year one is documentation. Every client file complete. Every commission statement organized. A master spreadsheet of your full business— product by product, carrier by carrier, invoice by invoice.

Run the numbers and calculate your rough valuation. That is your floor. Now you know what you are building toward.

Year two is independence. Get someone in front of your clients. A part-time service person who handles renewal calls and plan change questions. Get them copied on emails. Get clients used to hearing a name other than yours.

By the end of year two, you should be able to take a full week off without the book suffering.

That is the test. If you cannot take a week off without the phone ringing constantly, you are not ready to sell.

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The Exit is a Decision You Make Years Before You Act on It

The business owners who get the best outcomes are not the luckiest ones. They are not the ones who stumbled into the right buyer at the right moment.

They are the ones who spent three years building a business that any serious buyer could understand, value, and operate.

You have time. Most owners treat that as a reason not to start. The ones who exit well know it is a reason to start now.

Pull up a chair. Your exit plan starts before you’re ready to use it.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

She didn’t know it yet. She had 200 Medicare clients. Maybe 100 ACA. Years of referrals, renewals, relationships.

She knew she had something valuable. She just didn’t know what the number was.

By the end of the hour, she did. This piece is about that number. Not her specific number, but the framework behind it.

Because if you own any kind of book of business — insurance, wealth management, financial planning, any recurring-revenue client base — you probably don’t know what it’s actually worth either.

Most owners don’t. And that gap between what they think they have and what a buyer will actually pay is one of the most expensive blind spots in small business ownership.

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The Market Exists. It Just Doesn’t Advertise.

There is an active market for books of business in the insurance and financial services space. Buyers are out there, they have capital, and they buy these books regularly.

Even if you’re not in financial services, these same principles apply to you and your business.

Some are FMOs. Some are larger agencies. Some are private equity-backed consolidators.

They’re not publishing price lists. They’re just quietly buying.

The reason most sellers are shocked by their numbers — in both directions — is that they’ve never looked up what the market actually pays.

They’re sitting on an asset they’ve never appraised. So, let’s do that.

The Valuation Formula is Simple. The Variables Aren’t.

The base formula is straightforward: **annual commission x a multiple**.

What changes the multiple is stickiness. How likely is this client to stay? How painful is it for them to leave? How much work does the buyer have to retain the business?

Here’s how it shakes out across product lines, specifically in the case of our insurance agency client who is looking to retire.

Medicare Advantage clients

These are sticky. Clients don’t change plans often. When they do, it’s usually because an agent helped them. Multiple: 2x to 2.25x annual commission.

ACA (individual marketplace) clients

Moderately sticky, but more price-sensitive. Clients shop around at open enrollment.

Multiple: 1.5x to 2x annual commission.

A clean, well-maintained book with low churn lands at the top of that range.

A book where the agent has been less attentive — closer to 1.5x.

Medicare Supplement clients in Kansas

Higher than Missouri. Closer to 2x. The portability rules in Kansas make the renewal more reliable.

Medicare Supplement clients in Missouri

This one surprises people.

Multiple: 1.5x or less. Possibly well under.

The reason: buyers may move those clients to a different product and, depending on how that goes, may not get paid in year two.

That uncertainty gets priced in immediately.

Small group health (under 50 lives)

Similar to Medicare Advantage. Around 2x annual commission.

Slightly higher in some cases because the relationships are stickier and the renewal conversation is more involved. Buyers like that.

I’m taking you through exhausting detail, so you get the point. Different variables change everything, in every business, when it comes to valuation.

You have to comb through your business in every little detail to understand the nuances of making your business more valuable than it is today.

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The Multiple is Not Fixed

The multiples I quoted above are market ranges, not guarantees. Several things move the needle:

Who is staying with the business?

The most important variable. If you’re staying on for 2-3 years as the client-facing person, the multiple goes up.

Buyers know retention is higher when the original agent stays involved. If you want to walk away immediately, expect a haircut.

Every buyer I’ve seen pass on a deal passed on it because the agent wanted out too fast.

What’s the age profile of the clients?

A book full of 68-year-olds is worth more than a book full of 80-year-olds. Younger clients have more years of renewals ahead. Buyers model this.

What’s the concentration risk?

If 40% of your commissions come from one client, that single client is a liability.

Buyers price concentration risk. Diversified businesses get better multiples.

How clean is the compliance picture?

Any complaints, E&O history, or compliance issues will either kill a deal or crater the multiple.

Buyers do not want inherited headaches. A clean record is worth more than people realize.

The Deal Structure Nobody Explains

Most of these transactions are not a wire transfer on day one.

The most common structure is a 3-to-5-year earnout. Here’s how it works:

The buyer agrees on a total price based on the valuation formula. They pay a portion upfront — maybe 50-60% — and the rest is paid out over the earnout period tied to retention.

If the clients stay, you get paid. If they churn, the back end shrinks.

This protects the buyer from paying full price for a book that falls apart. And it aligns the seller’s incentives with retention, which is why buyers strongly prefer sellers who stay involved.

In the best versions of these deals, the seller comes on as a salaried employee during the earnout.

They keep their client relationships, keep writing new business at a commission (typically 25% on new clients, 10% on referrals), and get benefits and retirement contributions through the buyer’s structure.

The earnout is essentially their exit package.

It’s not glamorous. But for a lot of owners who built a good business over 15 years and want to stop worrying about systems and staffing, it’s a very clean way out.

What to Do with This Information

If you own a business of any kind, here’s what to do after reading this article:

Pull up your P&L from the last 12 months. Add up revenues by product or service. Calculate an annual run rate. Then apply the multiples above.

That number is a rough floor. Add to it if your retention is strong, you have repeat customers, or you have great lead flow.

Subtract from it if your book is undocumented, your clients are older, or you want out fast.

That’s the starting point for any real conversation.

You don’t need to sell. You don’t need to merge.

But knowing what you have is different from guessing. And in my experience, the people who know their number make better decisions than the people who don’t.

The business you built is an asset. Treat it like one.

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The Best Results Take Time

It takes anywhere from three to four years from the time coffee is planted until it is ready to be harvested.

0-6 months is the seeding process.

1-2 years the plant grows into a bush.

3-4 years flowers appear and the cherries begin to develop.

Because of the dependency on the environment and climate, the average lifecycle is closer to seven years. Once it’s done properly, the plant can be useful for 20-30+ years.

Selling and the succession of a business is the same way. It takes years of diligence and work to exit properly.

For the business to pass on and be successful beyond the sale, it takes years of work and commitment. Just like farming.

As always, drink local and enjoy the good stuff that takes years to produce.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

They handed me a statement. A fixed indexed annuity with a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit they had owned for four years. I did the math in my head.

In four years, their account had gained $2,400.

Not $2,400 a month. $2,400 total. In four years.

Their income was coming in right on schedule. The checks hit every month. But the account sitting behind those checks had barely moved in nearly half a decade.

This is the thing most people have never been told about certain annuities. The income can be real, and the account can be dying at the same time.

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The Income is Real. The Asset Might Not Be.

Most people think of an annuity as one thing. It is not. The word “annuity” covers a range of products so different from each other that using the same label for all of them is almost misleading.

The one that catches people off guard most often is the guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit, or GMWB. These products became popular in the early 2000s and were sold heavily through the 2010s.

The pitch was simple: put your money in, get a guaranteed income for life, no matter what the market does.

That pitch was accurate. The income is guaranteed.

Here is what the pitch usually left out.

The income is not being paid from your account balance. It is being paid from a separate calculation called an income benefit base. That base is what determines how much income you receive. In many products, that base rolls up at 6 or 7 percent per year, regardless of what the market does.

Sounds good. Now read the next part carefully.

The fee you pay every year is also calculated against that benefit base, not your actual account balance. That fee typically runs between 1.5 and 3.5 percent annually.

So, your benefit base has been rolling up at 7 percent for 8 years and is now sitting at $300,000. Your actual account value is $180,000 because the market had a few flat years and fees have been running 3 percent against the inflated number the whole time.

You are paying $9,000 a year in fees against an account worth $180,000.

That is a 5 percent fee drag on your actual money. Before you take a single dollar of income.

Where the Balance Goes

Once income begins, the account faces pressure from three directions at the same time.

The income distributions are going out. The fees continue to run against the inflated benefit base. And market gains have to be extraordinary just to offset both headwinds.

The result is predictable. The account balance trends down. Not always quickly. But the direction is not ambiguous.

These products are often illustrated out 15 years before the account reaches zero. That is not a flaw in the modeling. That is the design.

The insurance company planned for the account to eventually hit zero, at which point the insurer simply continues paying the guaranteed income directly, converting the policy into something closer to a traditional annuity.

The product did exactly what it was designed to do.

The problem is that most clients did not know what it was designed to do. They thought they had a growing asset behind their income. They had a shrinking one.

If you want to keep learning how the financial products in your retirement plan actually work, subscribe below. Each week I cover the specifics most advisors skip over.

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The Reaction That Tells You Everything

I have had this conversation with a handful of advisors over the past year who had never seen a registered index-linked annuity, or RILA. The reaction is almost always the same.

I explain that with certain RILAs you can get 115 percent of the upside of the S&P 500, no fee, with a buffer that limits your downside exposure. The advisor looks at me like I have suggested something illegal and says something along the lines of: you are telling me clients capture more than the market gains, pay nothing in fees, and have downside protection built in.

I am not very bright, but I knew that was an unbelievable rate the first time someone explained it to me.

The answer is yes. And the reason it works is that the insurance company operates at an institutional level, using options contracts and structured products that are not available to retail investors.

They can do this at a scale that makes the math work. It is the same concept that allows a life insurance company to invest policy premiums into private equity and commercial real estate and then pass a dividend back to policyholders.

They have hundreds of billions of dollars to deploy. They get access to investments you and I cannot walk across the street and buy.

The RILA passes some of that institutional access to the client. 115 percent participation. No fee. A buffer on the downside.

This is not the same product as the GMWB sold in 2009.

Same Three Weeks, Two Different Outcomes

The wife of the couple I mentioned owned her own account. She had been in index funds inside her IRA, and the volatility had worn on her. After talking through her options, she moved a portion into a RILA with 115 percent upside participation and no fee.

Her husband moved out of the GMWB and into the market.

Three weeks later, he had gained $11,000. She had gained $9,600 inside her RILA.

Two different vehicles. Both moving forward. Both of them breathing easier than they had in months.

Here is the thing. Neither of them was necessarily wrong to own what they had originally. The GMWB solved a real problem at the time. The income guarantee gave them peace of mind, and the checks came in every month without fail. That part worked.

The problem was the expectation. They thought the account was growing behind the income. It was not. Nobody ever drew it out on a napkin for them.

They also thought they were going to need that income every month, they don’t. This allows them to save the money on fees and distribute what they want when they need it.

Not All Annuities Are the Problem

The instinct after a story like this is to conclude that all annuities are bad. That is not the point.

Some annuities are excellent tools for specific situations. A RILA for a pre-retiree who wants market upside but cannot absorb a 30 percent drawdown is a compelling option.

A fixed annuity in a high-rate environment can lock in a yield unavailable anywhere else. An income annuity for someone without a pension who needs a guaranteed monthly floor has legitimate uses.

The question is always: what problem you are solving and is this product actually solving it.

A GMWB solves the problem of guaranteed lifetime income. If guaranteed income is your only priority and you understand that the underlying account may go to zero over time, that is a legitimate trade-off for some people.

The problem is that most people were never told they were making that trade-off.

You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.

Three Questions for Your Next Meeting

If you own an annuity and you have never had this conversation, bring these three questions to your advisor.

First: Is my income being paid from my account balance or from a separate benefit base? If there is a benefit base involved, ask to see both numbers on the same statement.

Second: What is the fee, and what is it calculated against? If the fee is charged against the benefit base rather than your actual account balance, do the math yourself.

Take the benefit base number, multiply by the fee percentage, and compare that result to your real account value. That is your actual fee percentage.

Third: Run the illustration out to year fifteen. What does the account balance show? If it goes to zero, that is not automatically disqualifying. But you need to know before you make any decisions.

The goal here is not panic. The goal is clarity.

A dollar you do not fully understand is a dollar you cannot protect.

The Pot That Keeps Dripping

There is a coffee maker in a lot of offices that has been running on the same pot since nine in the morning.

The warming plate keeps it hot. Coffee still comes when you pour. Nothing feels wrong.

Nobody notices until the last person reaches for a cup.

That is the GMWB experience for a lot of retirees right now. The income is real. The checks come in every month.

But the account behind those checks has been on the burner since 2007 or 2009, fees running 3 percent annually against an inflated benefit base while the actual balance has quietly gone from $300,000 to $180,000 to something approaching zero.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with annuities in a financial plan if solution matches the goal. The problem is when people inherit an annuity that’s been drained over time.

It’s like going to grab the last cup and getting 25% of your cup full of coffee.

See you in a few days, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

Fixed Annuities are long term insurance contracts and there is a surrender charge imposed generally during the first 5 to 7 years that you own the annuity contract. Indexed annuities are insurance contracts that, depending on the contract, may offer a guaranteed annual interest rate and some participation growth, if any, of a stock market index. Such contracts have substantial variation in terms, costs of guarantees and features and may cap participation or returns in significant ways. Investors are cautioned to carefully review an indexed annuity for its features, costs, risks, and how the variables are calculated. Any guarantees offered are backed by the financial strength of the insurance company. Surrender charges apply if not held to the end of the term. Withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income and, if taken prior to 59 ½, a 10% federal tax penalty.

Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing in Variable Annuities. The prospectus, which contains this and other information about the variable annuity contract and the underlying investment options, can be obtained from the insurance company or your financial professional. Be sure to read the prospectus carefully before deciding whether to invest.

The investment return and principal value of the variable annuity investment options are not guaranteed. Variable annuity sub-accounts fluctuate with changes in market conditions. The principal may be worth more or less than the original amount invested when the annuity is surrendered.

QLACs cannot be purchased with Roth or Inherited IRA dollars; value of such IRAs cannot be included in determining 25% premium limit. If Funding Source is Traditional IRA, 25% limit is calculated by combining the total value of all Traditional IRAs as of December 31st of the previous year. If Funding source is Employer sponsored qualified plan (401k, 403b and governmental 457b), 25% limit is calculated on an individual plan basis based on the plan’s account value on the previous day’s market close. If you previously purchased a QLAC, the calculation of your 25% limit is more complicated. Please contact an attorney or tax professional for additional details. Any guarantees of the annuity are backed by the financial strength of the underlying insurance company.

I believe in it. I am not a Gary Vee hater. If you took Vee Friends off the label and put whatever-your-name-is Friends on it, I am probably buying it anyway.

I believe in the concept. Children like animals, they like characters, and we need to teach them good character traits. I am sold on that.

My kids prove the thesis every day. My four-year-old picks up the Confident Cobra card and calls it the snake from Zootopia. The Radical Rabbit is Officer Hopps. At four and two years old, they relate to these characters in their own way.

When they ask me, “Daddy, what is the snake’s name?” I get to sit there and teach them what confidence means. What empathy means. What it looks like to be a radical thinker.

I did not buy a Vee Friends card because Gary Vee told me to. I bought it because I see a pattern in my home, the hobby, and society as a whole.

That is the principle behind everything I am about to tell you. Buy what you know and care about. The rest follows.

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I Am Willing to Listen

A few years back, Geoff Wilson on the Sports Card Investor podcast mentioned that Fanatics said they were going to 10x the hobby.

I believed it immediately. Did not question it for a second. I know people who have been in this hobby a long time who pushed back on that.

As a business mind, I just think Fanatics is ingenious at what they do. Everything they touch turns to gold. Michael Rubin is operating at a level most people in this industry do not fully understand.

Now, just a few years later, we are sitting at roughly 9X. Almost there.

Here is the part worth sitting with, though. Talk to most collectors and they will say that revenue growth came on the backs of raised box prices, not from doubling the number of people walking in the door. That is probably mostly true.

My read is the hobby has genuinely grown — maybe 4x to 5x in actual traffic. But a meaningful chunk of that revenue story is the same core collector base showing up, paying more for sealed product each year.

Which means the real 10x — the one where Fanatics actually multiplies the number of new people in the hobby — has not happened yet.

I think that is the next move. And I think it runs through non-sports.

Listen to Gary Vee. Not Because He’s Loud. Because He’s Inside.

Gary Vee is a polarizing figure. I get it. You either love him or you do not. He talks a lot. People call him a yapper.

But here is what I keep coming back to. Gary Vee does marketing for Fanatics. He is on the inside track of the one company — outside of PSA — that is running the tables in this hobby right now.

Topps and PSA are driving this ship, whatever direction it ends up going. And Gary is sitting in those rooms.

So, when Gary Vee has spent the last year getting louder and more specific about non-sports — when he starts mentioning 1966 Marvel Donruss, TMNT, Transformers — I am not writing it off as noise.

I am listening.

Because what I hear underneath it is a message from Topps: the next level of growth in this hobby is not sports.

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The Pop Count Gap Nobody is Talking About

Here is the data point that stopped me cold.

Spider-Man’s rookie card. Population total: 350.

Pokémon cards with population counts of 6,000 are trading at the same price — or higher.

Somebody explain that to me.

Spider-Man is one of the most recognizable characters in the history of pop culture. The entire Avengers franchise. An IP that has generated billions of dollars in film, merchandise, and media across sixty-plus years.

Yet the total PSA graded, across all grades, version of his rookie card has a pop of 350.

Meanwhile, Pokémon cards — which I love and believe in, for the record — with populations in the thousands are priced as if the market has already fully priced in the demand.

The gap between those two things is an opportunity. Not because Spider-Man is going to behave exactly like Pokémon.

At some point, somebody who grew up watching every Marvel movie is going to wake up and ask the same question I asked: “Wait, is there a Spider-Man rookie card? What does that cost?”

That moment has not happened at scale yet. But I think it is coming. And I want to be in position when it does.

What I Am Actually Buying — and Why

I do not rip boxes. Never have. I do not like the gambling aspect of sealed product. I buy singles. Always have.

That discipline made this decision easy. I am not trying to speculate on which IP Topps picks for its next release. I am buying what I know, what I love, and what I would be proud to own even if the market never catches up.

Marvel: I watch Marvel content. My son, daughter, and I play Spider-Man in the backyard. We are Marvel people.

I believe that someone like me — who came to the hobby later, not through sports — is going to discover that rookie card and want it in the highest grade possible.

TMNT: I play Ninja Turtles with my kids. That is not a niche. That is a generational franchise with no signs of slowing down.

Transformers: I have not gone deep yet, but I would love to own an Optimus Prime rookie card. And I think my son is going to love Transformers. That is enough for me to pay attention.

Vee Friends: Already told you where I stand. Collecting it, believe in it, and my kids are doing the due diligence for me every time we pull them out of my case.

The rule is simple. Only buy IP you actually understand and care about. Do not buy Magic: The Gathering because somebody told you to if you have never played.

Do not buy Yu-Gi-Oh because you vaguely remember having a pack in middle school.

Buy the thing you would be proud to explain at the dinner table ten years from now.

I Am Not Doom and Gloom on Sports Cards

I want to be clear on this before I wrap up.

I am not saying sports cards are finished. I am not in that camp at all.

What I believe is that the hobby is going to recycle itself. People get burned on ultra-modern. They lose money, they learn, they go searching for underpriced assets.

And I think they are going to discover what I believe is one of the most underrated sets in the hobby: 2008 Topps Chrome Baseball.

Not basketball. Not football. Baseball. Crazy low pop counts. Prices that have barely moved. An era that has not been touched yet by the wave of money that came into the hobby over the last few years.

A lot of collectors do not have the capital yet to get into 2000s-era baseball. But they will. And when that happens, I think the recycling begins.

Sports cards are not dying soon. Some eras are dramatically underpriced, and the collectors who have learned to look past the flashing lights are going to find them first.

The Principle Behind All of This

Ignore the flashing lights. Listen to the signal.

The creators worth following are not always the loudest ones. They are the ones with access — inside the rooms, inside the brands, seeing what Topps is prioritizing, knowing which products PSA is routing resources toward.

When those people start talking about an IP repeatedly, that is not yapping. That is signal.

I am willing to listen. I am willing to take a shot on a concept because the data makes sense, because I love the IP, and because the worst case is I own something I think is genuinely cool.

I will sit around with my family someday and talk about why I believed in Spider-Man and Ninja Turtles and a character-based card company built around teaching kid’s good values.

That is a move I am comfortable making.

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It’s Totally Awesome, Dudes. Cowabunga!

What’s better than an extra pepperoni pizza or natural webbing instead of web shooters? Your favorite coffee mug.

I’m revealing myself as a freak for saying this, but I’m fully convinced that coffee tastes better out of certain mugs. I have exactly nine mugs that I will drink homemade coffee out of, nine.

That might sound like a lot compared to the normal person, they might just have one mug that they use. The way I see it, I’m losing nine mugs away from going insane.

Or am I already? Tell me in the comments!

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

They had heard we helped people save money on taxes. So, I sat down with them on a Zoom call — him and his wife, both working corporate jobs.

Between the two of them, they were clearing over $700,000 a year on W-2 income. They also had an additional $350,000 of profit coming in from various business entities.

Smart people. Successful people. Doing everything they thought they were supposed to do. Hire a CPA? Check. Working with Schwab online to save money? Check.

The problem they faced was that despite having “advisors,” they had a bunch of stuff all over the place that was not connected.

All of their “stuff” wasn’t solving the one thing killing their financial plan and peace of mind.

Taxes.

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They Were Buying Things to Escape Their Taxes

Every year, their CPA had the same advice: find a deduction.

So, they did. Real estate. Businesses. Assets that depreciate. Equipment. Trucks.

The logic made sense on paper — put money into things that lose value over time, write off the depreciation, reduce your taxable income.

But there was a catch.

They had an S-Corp. And here is what happens with an S-Corp that most people do not fully appreciate until they are living it: the profit flows through to your personal tax return.

That is called pass-through income. It sounds clean in theory.

In practice, it meant every asset they bought to generate a deduction was also generating income — which flowed right back through the S-Corp onto their personal return and added to their tax bill.

They were running as fast as they could and ending up exactly where they started.

I said to them, half joking, “That sounds like a lot of my clients. Gosh, how many more trucks and equipment do you need in your front driveway?”

He looked at me through the Zoom call and said, “Are you kidding? I have a brand-new 2024 Ford F-250 sitting in my driveway that I have not driven one mile.”

That is what tax planning without a real plan looks like.

The Trap Most CPAs Don’t See

Here is why this cycle keeps happening.

When a CPA tells a high-income client to go buy a depreciating asset, they are technically correct. You get the deduction. Your taxable income drops for that year. From a pure tax filing standpoint, it works.

What it does not account for is your financial health.

The government gives you that tax break because they know what you bought. They know the truck depreciates. They know the equipment loses value.

They know you just used your own money to stimulate the economy with an asset that is going to be worth less every year you own it. That is why they are willing to share a little of the tax burden with you.

It is a short-term win built on a long-term loss.

And if your asset generates income? Now you have not solved the problem. You have compounded it.

A dollar lost in taxes is a dollar gone forever. But a dollar spent on a depreciating asset just to avoid taxes is two dollars gone — one to the asset, one you never recover.

This couple had been running this playbook for years. Buying things, they did not need because their CPA said it was the move. It was not bad advice exactly. It just was not the whole picture.

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The Question That Changed Everything

Before I showed them anything, I asked one question.

“What do you know about a cash balance plan?”

They had never heard of it.

Most people have not. Their CPA had not mentioned it. Their financial planner had not mentioned it.

And yet, for high-earning business owners and professionals, a cash balance plan is one of the most powerful tax reduction tools available in the entire tax code.

So let me explain it.

What a Cash Balance Plan Actually Is

A cash balance plan is a pension plan. Specifically, it is a defined benefit plan — which means it is actuarially designed based on your age.

Here is what that means in practical terms: the older you are, the more you can put in.

A 401(k) has contribution limits that are the same for everyone. Right now, the maximum is around $69,000 a year including employer contributions.

For a couple earning $600,000, that is barely a rounding error. It does not move the needle on their tax bill.

A cash balance plan is a different animal entirely.

Depending on your age and income, a cash balance plan can allow you to contribute and deduct anywhere from $100,000 to more than $1,000,000 per year. Every dollar goes in pre-tax.

Every dollar reduces your taxable income. And instead of buying a depreciating asset you park in your driveway, you are building a real retirement account that grows tax-efficiently.

For this couple, we designed a plan around their S-Corp pass-through income — the income they did not need and could not get ahead of on taxes.

Instead of watching it flow through to their personal return, they redirected it into the cash balance plan.

Now it is compounding. Now it is working for them. Now the truck can stay parked.

What Business Owners Need to Know

It is designed for a window, not a lifetime.

Cash balance plans are typically funded over five to ten years. They are not like a 401(k) where you contribute steadily until you are 59. You pick a window. You fund aggressively inside that window. Then you have options.

For business owners who feel behind — who have had all their money tied up in the business and not enough set aside for retirement — this is how you catch up. We are talking about making a decade’s worth of retirement contributions in five years. Not a hypothetical. That is how these plans are designed to work.

The flexibility that makes this work.

We did a review with a different client a couple of years into the plan. He needed to fund another $200,000 that year for tax purposes, but he also had other financial commitments pressing on him.

The good news about cash balance plans is that your annual contribution has flexibility. You are not locked into the same number every year. You work with your actuary, look at your income and timeline, and determine what makes sense for that year.

And if you are a more conservative investor — if you look at stock market volatility and want no part of it — cash balance plans are designed to be invested conservatively.

They are pension plans. Conservative is the default, not the exception. You get the tax benefit without taking equity risk to do it.

The deadline is longer than you think.

Here is something most business owners miss, and it matters right now.

If you file a tax extension, you have until the extension deadline to fully fund your cash balance plan for the prior year.

At the time of this writing, we are in 2026. That means you can still fund a cash balance plan for your 2025 taxes all the way until September. If you are sitting on a tax bill from last year and wondering what you can still do about it, this window is still open.

You can solve multiple problems with one vehicle.

This is the part that surprises people most.

This couple came in with a tax problem. But as we dug into their full picture, another issue surfaced. They had a sizable net worth. And with their investment growth and the projected value of their business, their estate was on track to exceed the federal estate tax exemption.

Estate taxes on anything above that exemption — a problem they had not even started thinking about.

We folded life insurance into the cash balance plan. Through a technique called a seasoned dollar swap, we moved money out of the plan — purchased with other dollars at a discount — into a trust.

Now the same vehicle solving their short-term tax problem is also solving their long-term estate tax problem.

One tool. Two problems solved. Sometimes three or four.

That is the power of a well-designed cash balance plan. It is not just a retirement account. It is a planning platform.

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If You’re a Business Owner Reading This

I want you to sit with one idea.

You cannot think your way to a lower tax bill. You cannot efficiently deduct your way there either — not if every deduction you take is generating income somewhere else.

The clients who get ahead on taxes are not the ones who bought the most stuff. They are the ones who found a qualified, tax-sheltered vehicle and funded it aggressively while the window was open.

They stopped trying to outrun the IRS and started redirecting money to a place the IRS cannot reach.

Cash balance plans are not complicated. They are just not talked about. Your CPA’s job is to file your return accurately. Your financial planner’s job is typically to manage your investments and other areas of your planning.

Very few people are sitting at the intersection of both, asking the right question: what is the most tax-efficient way to build your wealth right now?

That is the question that saved this couple over $200,000 a year in taxes over a five-year period.

Not a truck. Not a piece of equipment. Not another entity.

A plan.

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

I sat back and stared at it for a second.

Ken Fisher has built one of the most recognized wealth management brands in the country. Paid search. Television commercials. National presence. You have seen the ads.

Generic couple walking on a beach. Some variation of “the fees you pay could be costing you more than you think.” He has been running some version of that for longer than I have been in this business.

You have to give credit where it is due. Fisher figured out paid advertising before almost anyone in financial services. They scaled it nationally. The machine works.

And sitting there, looking at that ad appearing in a generic search result, I felt something unexpected.

Relief.

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Nine Years Building Someone Else’s Name

Here is something I do not say often enough.

For the first nine years of my business, I did not have a real brand. Not one that belonged to me.

I was building my reputation, yes. I was earning relationships. I was sitting across from clients during some of the hardest financial conversations of their lives — retirement decisions, business exits, planning after losing a spouse — and I was doing good work. Honest work. The kind of work that actually matters.

But the name on the building belonged to someone else. The institution I was affiliated with got the brand equity. I got the experience.

That is the deal most advisors make at the start. You align with a larger firm because it gives you instant credibility while you are still establishing yourself. It is a reasonable trade early on.

The problem is that a reasonable trade at year one is a losing trade at year nine. I was building their brand. Not mine.

The day I decided to stop doing that is the day everything got easier and more interesting at the same time.

We built Revolutionary Wealth as our financial planning and wealth management division.

Then Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors to handle tax and estate planning, business consulting, and the work I do with business owners who are trying to buy, sell, or grow.

Two firms. One mission. We wanted to build a brand that other people could fit themselves into. Not “Scott Financial” or “Flores Partners.”

Something that someone could wake up and feel the same sense of pride that we do, revolutionizing the way we think and do business.

What It Actually Looks Like

Most people imagine entrepreneurs building their brand in some well-lit studio. Ring light, microphone, everything dialed in.

That is not what it looks like.

It looks like a tv light shining on me with a computer in my lap after the kids go to bed. A Claude subscription. A ChatGPT account. A few other tools. Somewhere between $700 and $1,000 a month in software, if that.

That is my entire production stack.

I go to industry conferences sometimes. I walk into rooms full of people from firms with national reach, compliance departments, and marketing budgets with real numbers behind them. Someone will look at me and ask, “Who are you with?”

And I say our firm name. Revolutionary Wealth.

There is a pause. Sometimes a polite nod. Sometimes I can see the calculation happening behind their eyes — the quick scan to figure out if I am worth taking seriously.

I used to let that bother me. I have spent enough time in those pauses to understand something now. The pause is the gap between the world they built and the world they are about to be late to.

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The 800-Pound Gorilla is Still Advertising on Google

Here is what I noticed about that Fisher Investments ad.

It showed up in a generic search result. A paid placement. The same format that has been running for a decade and a half.

The message was identical to what they have always run. Older couple. Fees. Call us.

And I thought: they are fighting the last war.

Fisher is a company managing hundreds of billions in assets. Their marketing budget is a number I cannot actually picture. They have entire teams whose job is to get in front of new clients.

And in 2026, they are buying Yahoo-style placements in Google results.

That is not a comment on their financial advice, which I will leave to others to evaluate. That is an observation about where they are competing.

They mastered the broadcast era. They scaled paid search. They built a machine that was very good at reaching people who were already looking.

They do not have a real playbook for what comes next. Not because they are stupid.

Because their entire organization is optimized for a version of client acquisition that is quietly becoming the past.

What Comes Next is Not Like What Came Before

The next five to ten years in financial services will be built by people who understand something the big firms are still figuring out.

Trust is not bought. It is accumulated.

The way trust accumulates now is different from when Fisher was running his first television spot. A 30-second ad during the evening news does not carry what it used to.

A generic Google placement does not either. People have become remarkably good at scrolling past both.

What builds trust now is showing up consistently, saying something real, and letting people watch how you think over time.

That is what this newsletter does. That is what Notes do. That is what I am building with every post.

I am not writing Coffee and Compounding to chase a subscriber number. I am writing it because I believe the advisors and business owners who are willing to show their actual thinking are going to inherit the clients that big firms lose.

And they will lose clients. Not necessarily because they give bad advice. Because they will never feel like a person to the people they serve.

You cannot buy that feeling. You can only earn it by showing up.

The Tools Changed the Math

Six or seven years ago, building a brand the way we are building it would have required infrastructure I could not afford. A content team. A marketing director. A social media strategy.

The whole machine of a real media company scaled down to fit a mid-size advisory firm.

Most of us could not afford that. Most of the people reading this still cannot.

What I have now is different. A few hundred dollars a month in AI tools and the specific knowledge I have built over nearly a decade of real client work. That combination does something the big firms cannot easily replicate.

They can buy reach. They cannot easily buy a perspective built on thousands of client conversations and a genuine point of view about how wealth actually gets built.

The 800-pound gorilla has more resources. That is still true. Resources that were built to win a specific game, in a specific era, are not the advantage they used to be when the game starts to change.

I am not building what they built. I am building something different. Something that has equity in it, and purpose behind it, and a reason to exist beyond just placing first in a paid search result.

This is For You

If you are still reading, I want to say something directly.

If you are the person with the lamp on at night, building something the established players in your industry do not take seriously yet, I see you.

If you walked into a room recently and someone gave you the polite nod after you said your own business’ name, I have been there. More times than I can count. I’m still there.

If you have spent years being the most prepared person in the meeting and still getting underestimated because your business is newer, your brand is younger, or you do not have a national television presence, I know what that feels like. And I want you to hear something clearly.

The generic couple walking on the beach is not competing in the next decade. The firm running the same paid search campaign they have run for fifteen years is not building the kind of trust that survives what is coming.

The owner who has never shown anyone how they actually think is not building a brand. They are buying one, one impression at a time, and impressions are getting more expensive and less effective every year.

You are building differently. You have the audacity to believe you can change the way brands are grown and the way trust is earned in your industry.

That is not arrogance. That is a structural advantage. The kind that compounds quietly until it becomes impossible to ignore.

Maybe that is humility. More likely it is just what it looks like when someone is willing to do the work that the big guys are too comfortable to try.

Keep the lamp on, take a sip of coffee, and enjoy being small while it lasts.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

That fear, and a few other widely repeated half-truths about Roth conversions, is costing people money in two directions at once.

Some avoid conversions they should be doing because they think the rules are working against them.

Others sprint into conversions without understanding the bracket math and end up overpaying by tens of thousands of dollars.

Last week I told you about the couple who converted $340,000 in a single year and walked away with an $80,000 mistake.

This week is the math behind why it happened and what the right approach actually looks like.

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The 5-Year Rule Is Not What You Think It Is

Here is the statement I hear constantly: “I cannot touch my Roth money for five years.”

That is partially true, mostly misapplied, and regularly scares people away from conversions they should absolutely be doing.

The 5-year rule has two separate applications and conflating them is where most of the confusion starts.

The first rule applies to Roth IRA earnings. For your earnings to come out completely tax and penalty free, the Roth account needs to have been open for at least five years and you need to be 59.5 or older.

Your contributions are different. You put that money in with after-tax dollars. You can pull your contributions out anytime, tax and penalty free, no five-year clock required.

The second rule applies specifically to Roth conversions. Each conversion has its own five-year clock. If you convert $50,000 from a traditional IRA to Roth and you are under age 59.5, you need to wait five years before you can withdraw that converted amount without a 10% early withdrawal penalty.

This rule exists to prevent people from using Roth conversions as a backdoor early-withdrawal strategy. It was not built to discourage legitimate retirement planning.

Here is the part that matters for almost everyone reading this.

If you are over 59.5, the five-year penalty clock on conversions does not apply to you. You can convert today and access that money tomorrow without the 10% penalty. You will owe income taxes on the conversion when you file, because that is the whole point.

But the rule that people cite as a reason not to convert was never designed for people in their sixties planning their retirement.

For this audience, the five-year conversion rule is a non-factor. Stop letting a penalty that does not apply to you make your retirement decisions.

The 12% Bracket Math Nobody Wants to Talk About

For most pre-retirees and retirees, the 12% federal tax bracket in 2026 covers taxable income from roughly $12,400 to $50,400 for single filers, and up to $100,800 for married couples filing jointly.

That sounds like conversion room. And it is. But here is what the numbers actually look like when you map out the lifetime tax savings.

Say you are 62 with $180,000 sitting in a traditional IRA. You fill up the 12% bracket over a few years by converting that money. You pay 12% on it now instead of a potentially higher rate later.

How much do you actually save?

At best, if every dollar you converted would have otherwise been taxed at 22%, you saved 10 cents on every dollar. On $180,000, that is $18,000 in gross tax savings. Before you account for the opportunity cost of paying taxes years before they were due.

Stretched over a 20-year retirement with reasonable growth projections, the lifetime tax savings from filling the 12% bracket typically lands somewhere in the high five figures. Sometimes just over $100,000. Sometimes less, depending on your situation.

That is meaningful. It is not a retirement transformation. And it only makes sense at all if you actually expect to be in a higher bracket in retirement than you are today.

For many people with modest retirement income and required minimum distributions that stay comfortably under $50,000 per year, the 12% bracket conversions do not move the needle the way the internet suggests. The math closes narrowly if it closes at all.

The projection has to close. Do not let a strategy that sounds right shortcut the actual calculation.

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The Brackets Actually Worth Filling

The real leverage in Roth conversions lives in the 22% and 24% tax brackets.

Here is why.

At those income levels, your portfolio is large enough that required minimum distributions become a genuine future problem. The IRS requires you to start withdrawing money from your pre-tax retirement accounts at age 73 or 75, whether you want to or not. These withdrawals are calculated as a percentage of your account balance each year, and that percentage increases as you get older.

If you have $800,000 in a traditional IRA at 73, your first required minimum distribution is roughly $29,000. By 80, your balance has likely grown and your distribution percentage has increased.

By 85, you are looking at mandatory withdrawals that can push a retirement income that looked manageable into the 24% or 32% bracket. The distributions do not slow down. They compound the problem.

Higher required minimum distributions also trigger two secondary consequences that most people do not see coming until they are already in them.

First, they can increase the portion of your Social Security benefit that is taxable, up to 85% of your benefit amount.

Second, they can push your income above the Medicare IRMAA threshold, which adds surcharges to your Part B and Part D premiums. In 2026, a married couple with income above $206,000 pays an additional $838 per month in Medicare surcharges.

That is more than $10,000 per year in costs that did not exist at a lower income level.

Filling up the 22% and 24% brackets today, before required minimum distributions force the issue, is a genuine strategy with real math behind it. You are paying at a known rate now to avoid a higher rate later on a larger account balance.

Spread across a 15-to-20-year retirement, strategic conversions into those brackets can protect $400,000 to $900,000 or more in combined tax exposure, Medicare surcharges, and Social Security taxability, depending on your portfolio and timeline.

That is the Roth conversion conversation worth having.

The $200,000 Portfolio Threshold, Revisited

Last week I introduced a starting point I use in my practice: Roth conversions are best suited for portfolios over $200,000 in pre-tax accounts for people 65 and younger.

The bracket math is exactly why.

If you have $200,000 or less in pre-tax accounts and you are over 65, your required minimum distributions at 73 will be modest. On a $180,000 balance, your first distribution at 73 is roughly $6,900.

That number stays manageable for most of retirement. There is no bracket-push problem to solve, and no Medicare surcharge exposure to protect against. The urgency that generic advice creates simply does not exist.

But if you have $600,000 or $800,000 in a traditional IRA at 62, the math looks completely different. Your required minimum distribution at 75 on $800,000 is roughly $29,000. That is also assuming your account hasn’t grown in thirteen years.

If you also have Social Security income and other retirement income on top of that, the combined total may be pushing you toward the 24% bracket or higher. And that distribution grows every year.

That is the tax risk Roth conversions are designed to solve. Not the risk of “rates might go up someday.” The specific, calculable risk of mandatory distributions stacking on top of everything else you have coming in.

The threshold matters because it is a quick read on whether the problem actually exists for you. Below $200,000 at 65 or older, there is usually no fire to put out. Above $200,000 at 65 or younger, there usually is.

Get the projection. The number is specific to you.

Margin Matters

A coffee shop runs on a 3 to 7 percent net margin. That is not a lot of room.

The owners who protect those margins are not doing it by selling more lattes. They are doing it by adding higher margin products like muffins, t-shirts, etc.

Retirement planning that is optimized for financial confidence, it designed the same way. The little things become big things.

1-2% annually recovered from tax planning and other strategies is the equivalent to protecting your “margin” when bumps in the road come your way.

Remove only and just from your vocabulary. It’s “only” 2% back on your money until that 2% a year is the difference between running out of money and living with dignity later on in life.

Plan for the road ahead, buy the muffin at the shop. You’ll both be grateful that you did.

See you next time, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

That thought hit me while I was going through our trust documents. I was reviewing what would happen to our assets if something happened to me, and I realized: the collection is documented on paper, but my family has no idea how to actually navigate it.

They would not know what was sitting in my PSA vault. They would not know who to call or what fair market value looked like. If my kids were fighting over who gets the 1966 Spider-Man #34, there was no document that settled it.

I fixed all of that. This post explains exactly how.

Last week we covered the tax mechanics: the 28% federal rate on collectibles, the step-up in basis at death that wipes out a lifetime of appreciation, and why the IRS treats your card collection differently than every other investment you own.

If you missed it, subscribe and go back and read it. This post builds directly on that foundation.

Today we are covering the legal infrastructure that makes the step-up in basis actually work. The difference between a will and a trust, what a trust can do for a family that does not know what they are holding, why your PSA vault passwords matter as much as your will, and the one insurance strategy that keeps your family from having to liquidate your collection to pay a tax bill.

Grab a mug and pull up a chair, let’s protect your collection.

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The Step-Up Was the Tax Play. This Is the Family Play.

A quick recap for anyone who missed last week.

When your collection passes to your heirs, their cost basis resets to fair market value at the date of your death. Every dollar of appreciation you built over your lifetime is wiped clean.

Your kid inherits a card you bought for $500 that is now worth $12,000. Their basis is $12,000. They sell it for $12,000. They owe nothing.

That is a powerful tool. But it only works if three things are true.

One: the collection has a documented, defensible value at the time of death. That means a formal appraisal from a qualified professional, not a screenshot of eBay sold listings.

Two: someone knows where the collection is, what it contains, and what each piece is worth.

Three: there is a legal framework for what happens to it.

Most collectors have one out of three. Some have two. Very few have all three.

Without all three, the step-up in basis is a theory that never gets executed. Your heirs save exactly zero dollars because the paperwork was not in order.

A Will and a Trust Are Not the Same Thing

A will and a trust both determine who gets your assets. That is where the similarity ends.

A will goes through probate. Probate is a court-supervised process that validates your will, pays your outstanding debts, and distributes your assets to your beneficiaries.

In most states, it takes six months to two years. It is public record. And it costs money, typically 2-5% of the estate’s total value in legal and administrative fees.

A trust does not go through probate. It transfers directly to your beneficiaries according to your instructions.

It stays private. It moves quickly. And it can include specific directions that a will cannot.

For a card collector, that timing difference matters.

Imagine you pass with a $150,000 collection. It is listed in your will. Your family now has to wait for the estate to clear probate before they can touch it.

Your family is legally prohibited from selling or managing that collection while it sits in probate limbo.

Meanwhile, the market moves. A player gets injured. A set cools off. A rookie who drove a piece of your collection’s value goes into a slump that lasts eighteen months.

Even worse, your collection goes up in value, and the government gets to benefit.

The state charges your family a 4% probate cost on the collection that now is valued at $200,000. An $8,000 mistake.

If your family doesn’t have the cash for the probate expenses, now they have to sell your collection at a premium above the basis at a 28% gains rate to turn around and pay the government their $8,000.

$11,100 in forced sales just to pay the government, twice. Don’t get me started on the fees on top of the sales to even net $11,000.

With a trust, the collection transfers immediately to whoever you designated as trustee. They can sell, hold, or distribute according to the exact instructions you wrote before you died.

No court delays. No mandatory waiting period. No window for the market to work against your heirs.

For illiquid, market-sensitive assets like a card collection, a trust is not a nice-to-have. It is the right tool.

Not having one set up is like running a company with no HR department. You can get away with it for a while. Then one day it costs you everything.

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Your Family Needs a Map, Not Just a Name

Here is the part estate attorneys do not spend enough time on.

Even if you have a perfectly written trust, your family still has to know what they are holding.

A PSA 9 and a PSA 10 of the same Shohei Ohtani rookie card are not worth the same thing. One might sell for $800. The other might sell for $8,000.

That is not a rounding error. That is a decision that requires specific market knowledge your family almost certainly does not have.

Your trust can include more than just who gets what. It can specify how the collection should be appraised, who should handle the sale, and what the floor is for specific pieces.

You can designate individual cards for specific people. The 1952 Mantle goes to your oldest son, who was in the room when you bought it. The set your daughter helped you organize stays with her. The rest gets sold and proceeds distributed equally.

This is not being controlling from beyond. This is preventing your kids from arguing about it at Thanksgiving for the next four years.

I have seen what happens without it. A family friend passed with a six-figure collection and no instructions.

Three siblings. One loved cards and wanted to hold everything. One needed cash immediately. One did not care about cards but felt entitled to an equal share of the value.

It took two years and a mediator to reach resolution. The collection ended up selling for sixty cents on the dollar because they had no documented valuations and were under pressure to settle quickly.

A trust with specific, clear language would have solved all of it before it started.

If the Passwords Die with You, So Does the Access

This is the part of the conversation nobody is having, and it is more urgent than most collectors realize.

Your collection is not only the physical cards in your cases. For most serious collectors today, a meaningful portion of the value sits on a platform.

PSA Vault. Alt. Fanatics Collect. These are digital accounts with real assets inside them. Real dollar values. Graded inventory. Pending sales. And when you die, those accounts do not automatically transfer to your family. They are locked behind credentials that only you have.

Most platforms require account login credentials plus legal documentation to release assets to an estate. Without passwords, your family is looking at a lengthy legal process, potentially months of back-and-forth with a platform’s legal team, and a real risk that the assets are delayed or lost entirely.

I know a collector who passed in 2024. His family knew he collected cards. They did not know he had a vault account with $22,000 in graded inventory sitting inside it. They found out eight months later. It took four more months to gain legal access to the account.

$22,000 that nearly vanished because nobody knew the login existed.

Every platform. Every username. Every password. It lives with our trust documents and Grace knows exactly where it is.

It is one of those things I hope she never has to use. But the cost of not having it in place is too high.

Your estate plan is incomplete without a document covering every platform your collection lives on. PSA vault. Market Movers. Alt. Whatever tools you use to store, track, or sell. If your family cannot get in, your assets may not survive you.

The Life Insurance Move Most Collectors Have Never Considered

This is the one I find most interesting and the least discussed.

When your family inherits your collection and later decides to sell, they owe taxes on any appreciation that occurred after they inherited it. The step-up in basis resets the clock. It does not stop it.

If your $100,000 collection grows to $135,000 in the three years after your heirs inherit it, they owe 28% federal tax on that $35,000 gain when they sell. That is $9,800 to the IRS before their state shows up.

For larger estates, the math gets significantly heavier.

The federal estate tax exemption sits at $13.61 million. Some states have their own estate taxes that kick in at much lower thresholds. Illinois starts at $4 million. Massachusetts starts at $1 million. Oregon at $1 million.

If your retirement accounts, real estate, business interests, and collection combine to approach those thresholds, your heirs could face an estate tax bill due within nine months of your death.

The collection is an illiquid asset. They may have to sell quickly, at whatever price the market gives them right then, just to generate the cash to pay the government.

This is the exact scenario that wipes out collections families intended to keep. Why do you think the Irsay family sold his collection?

The strategy that solves it is the same one used in business succession planning and agricultural estate planning for decades. Life insurance.

A properly structured life insurance policy, ideally owned by an irrevocable life insurance trust so the proceeds stay outside the taxable estate, pays out a death benefit that covers the anticipated tax liability.

The proceeds go to your beneficiaries tax-free. They use that money to pay the estate taxes and keep the collection intact, rather than being forced to liquidate it.

The premium cost is a fraction of the potential exposure. A 55-year-old in good health can typically secure a $500,000 policy for under $300 a month. If that policy saves your family from a forced sale of a collection you spent twenty years building, the math works.

Using myself as an example, I pay $70 a month for $3 million of coverage. If my family needs to sell my collection, I want them getting the true value of it in their pocket.

You do not have to be near the estate tax threshold for this to matter. Even for families that will not face estate taxes, a policy sized to cover the expected collectibles capital gains liability gives your heirs options.

They can hold and wait for the right market. They can sell strategically over multiple tax years. They are not forced into a quick sale at a bad price.

The difference between collectors who planned and collectors who collected is not the size of the collection. It is whether the collection is a gift or a burden when it passes.

What Having a Plan Actually Looks Like

Here is where I am personally. This is the transparent truth about the planning I’ve done.

I have a trust. It includes specific language about the collection: who the trustee is, which pieces go to which family members, and who to contact for independent appraisal. Grace does not need to become a card expert. The document tells her what to do and who to call.

I have a document with every platform login my estate needs access to. PSA vault, eBay, and every tool I use to manage and track the collection. It is stored with our trust documents.

I have a $3 million life insurance policy. It is sized to cover the anticipated tax exposure on the estate, not just the collection, but the collection is part of the calculation.

I always get what I believe my exposure will be, not what it is today. Growth minded individuals should relate to this.

Here’s the brutal facts. We paid $4,500 for our trust before I got heavily back into the hobby. They wanted us to pay $900 per year to “service” the trust. After getting back into the hobby, I started asking questions around the topics that I’m educating you on today.

My attorney did not know the answers off hand. I left and immediately did my own research. I had the same experience with our CPA at the time; I had to find the tax answers myself.

In a moment of reflection, I realized “Wow, I’m a person in financial planning with more insight. The average collector does not know to think about these things or ask these questions. If I personally cannot get the service myself, what are the odds that they can?”

That kickstarted our firm building these services out in-house. Our sister company, Blueprint Business and Tax Advisors, is designed to help collectors with these conversations.

We have our own CPA that can help file and prepare taxes for collectors, card shop owners, you name it.

We have an attorney who can guide the trust conversations. We have software, that we pay for, that allows us to draft trust documents in all 50 states.

Our financial planning firm, Revolutionary Wealth, can help people setup life insurance for pennies on the dollar.

I’d love to tell you that I’m this genius business owner with a savvy mind and big ideas. The truth is that I literally had to do this for myself, first.

Being vulnerable, I felt ripped off that I paid $4,500 for a trust and $800 a year for taxes with people who didn’t understand one of the things in my life I’m most passionate about.

I’m saving, whoever in the hobby is willing to listen; the pain, due diligence required, and cost associated with having a plan for their family and collection.

Everything is designed cost-effectively. Hilariously enough, at the time of this writing our trust setup is 41% of the price of Shohei Ohtani’s 2018 Batting Chrome #1 in PSA 10 condition!

That card is a pop 5,126. Your planning for your collection and family is a 1/1.

If your collection is worth more than $25,000, a conversation with an attorney, accountant, and a financial advisor who understands collectibles is not optional. It is overdue.

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I drink single origin coffee almost exclusively. If you have never tried it, here is the thirty-second explanation of why it matters.

Most coffee you buy at a grocery store is a blend. Beans from four or five different countries, mixed together to hit a consistent flavor profile and a low price point.

There’s nothing wrong with it. But when something goes wrong in the supply chain, or one origin has a bad harvest, the roaster quietly substitutes and you never know.

Single origin means one farm, one region, one harvest. The bag tells you exactly where the beans came from, the altitude they were grown at, how they were processed after picking, and often the name of the farmer. You can taste the difference.

An Ethiopian Yirgacheffe processed naturally has a blueberry and jasmine character you will not find anywhere else. A washed Colombian from Huila will be clean and bright with stone fruit. They are not interchangeable.

The documentation is the whole point. Provenance is what separates a $6 bag from a $28 bag.

Your collection works the same way. A PSA 10 with documented provenance and a formal appraisal is not the same asset as an ungraded card in a shoebox.

The card might be identical. The documentation is not. One transfers cleanly through a trust. One creates a two-year headache for your family.

Know what you are holding. Write it down. That applies to coffee and cards.

Don’t be cheap, buy the good stuff and shop local.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Asset protection plans should be developed and implemented well before problems arise. Due to the fraudulent transfer laws, asset transfers that occur close in proximity to the filing of a lawsuit or bankruptcy can be interpreted by the court as a fraudulent transfer. Proper structuring of these assets is imperative please seek proper legal and tax advice prior to engaging in re-titling/structuring of any assets. Please note that laws are subject to change and can have an impact on your asset protection strategy.

Over the previous 12 months, they had converted their entire pre-tax retirement accounts to Roth. All of it. Approximately $340,000 in a single tax year.

Their reasoning was completely logical. They had heard that tax rates were going up. They had heard that Roth accounts grow tax-free. They had heard that the smart move was to convert as fast as possible.

Every video said the same thing. Every article pointed the same direction. So they acted.

When we ran the full tax projection, mapping taxes paid today against taxes avoided over the next 20 years, the number appeared on the screen like a cold cup of coffee.

They had overpaid taxes by more than $80,000 compared to what a staged, strategic conversion plan would have cost them. And that was the conservative estimate.

A six-figure mistake, when you add in lost portfolio growth. Because someone on the internet said, “convert everything.”

That story is not unusual. I have seen versions of it more times than I want to admit. Roth conversions are one of the most misunderstood strategies in retirement planning.

Not because the concept is hard. Because the advice people get online strips the math out of the equation and hands them a slogan instead.

Let’s put the math back in.

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“Roth is Better” is Not a Strategy. It is a Bias.

Go to any personal finance corner of the internet and you will find the same sentence repeated like a financial scripture: Roth is better.

Better than what? At what income? Over what time horizon? For what specific person in what specific situation?

Nobody asks those questions. They just say Roth is better, and people act.

Here is the actual logic behind a Roth conversion: you pay taxes on money now, at today’s known rate, rather than later at an unknown future rate. If your future rate is higher, you win. If your future rate is lower, you lost the bet and paid extra taxes early.

That logic is sound. In the right circumstances.

Think about it like buying fuel for a long trip. You hear that gas prices at your destination are going to be higher than they are today.

Smart move: fill up before you leave. Reasonable logic.

But if you drive to every gas station in your city, fill every gas can you own, and stack them in your garage, you have taken a reasonable principle and executed it into a disaster.

You spent $3,000 today protecting yourself from a price difference that only applies to what you actually need.

Converting a decade of retirement savings in a single tax year is the same mistake.

The principle is right. The execution ruins the math.

The $200,000 Portfolio Threshold Nobody Mentions

Here is the piece of guidance that does not make it into the YouTube videos or the personal finance podcasts.

Roth conversions are best suited for portfolios over $200,000 in pre-tax accounts for people 67 and younger.

Under that threshold, particularly for people over 67, the tax risk is usually minimal. Required minimum distributions on a smaller balance will likely stay in the 12% bracket for the majority of retirement.

Paying 22% today to avoid 12% later is not a strategy. It is paying extra taxes early and calling it planning.

I worked with a 68-year-old woman last year. $180,000 in a traditional IRA. She had been told by a family member, who had heard it somewhere, that she needed to convert before rates went up. We ran her full retirement projection.

Her projected required minimum distributions would never push her above the 12% bracket. Not even close.

Converting at 22% today to avoid 12% later would have cost her money. Net, over the full 20-year projection, she would have paid more in taxes, not less.

We kept her traditional IRA intact. She will pay modest taxes on her distributions for the next two decades and come out ahead.

The threshold I use in my practice: if you are under 67 with more than $200,000 in pre-tax accounts, a strategic conversion plan deserves serious attention. If you are over 67 with $200,000 or less, you likely do not have the tax risk that justifies the cost of conversion today.

Most people in that second category do not need Roth conversions. They need someone to tell them they are actually fine.

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The Couple Who Converted Everything

Back to the couple from the beginning.

They are not reckless people. They are smart, careful, retirement-minded people who were handed incomplete advice by sources with incomplete understanding.

The advice had two true pieces in it: tax rates may go up, and Roth accounts have real advantages. Both of those statements are accurate.

What the advice left out: their specific bracket situation, the opportunity cost of paying taxes early, and the three-year conversion plan that would have kept them in the 22% bracket the entire time.

They converted $340,000 in a single year. That pushed them past the 22% bracket and deep into the 32% bracket for a significant portion of that income. They paid 32 cents on the dollar on money that a patient, staged approach would have taxed at 22 cents.

The bracket difference alone on a portion of that conversion was more than $18,000. Add the accelerated tax payments on the rest and the total overpayment landed north of $80,000.

The strategy was right. The execution cost them more than $80,000.

I am going to try not to spill my coffee as I step off this soapbox, but this is exactly why generic advice is dangerous. A three-sentence video clip cannot account for your tax return.

Attention and Details Matter

A well-made pour-over takes about four minutes of deliberate attention. Water temperature matters. Pour rate matters. The grind matters. Rush any one of those three and the cup is off.

Roth conversions work the same way. The strategy is not complicated. The execution is.

Here is the fact to carry out of this conversation: a 2024 study found that fewer than 12% of Americans who qualify for Roth conversions have ever done one intentionally with a plan behind it.

Most either do nothing or do too much at once. Both cost money.

The window where conversions work is real. It is just narrower than the internet suggests.

Next week: the bracket math, the five-year rule, and a specific look at which portfolios benefit most from a staged conversion plan. More coffee required.

Subscribe now and I will bring it straight to your inbox.

See you in a few days, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

The buzz in every hobby is the chase. The next big player. The card that triples.

Geoff Wilson and creators like him have done a masterful job educating the market on what the hobby can do for you financially.

There is one thing nobody is talking about. Taxes.

As a financial advisor who focuses heavily on tax and estate planning, I have never seen more collectors get blindsided by the same thing.

The IRS treats your collection differently than every other investment you own. Not a little differently. A lot.

I personally have multi five-figures in cards and comics. I also have a trust and a plan for my family if something happens to me. That experience is why I feel qualified to lead this conversation.

Today I am walking you through the tax implications of buying, selling, and holding collectibles. Estate planning gets its own post. Make sure you are subscribed so you do not miss it.

Pull up a chair. Let’s talk taxes and cards.

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The Government Gets 28 Cents of Every Dollar You Make

Most people assume that if you hold something for over a year, the long-term capital gains rate kicks in at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your income. That is true for stocks and bonds. It is not true for collectibles.

The IRS defines collectibles under Section 408(m): art, antiques, stamps, coins, sports cards, trading cards, Pokémon cards, alcoholic beverages, precious metals. When you sell any of these at a profit after holding them for more than a year, the maximum federal capital gains rate is 28%.

Not 15%. Not 20%. 28%.

To put that in real numbers: you bought a 1952 Mickey Mantle card for $5,000. You held it for three years and sold it for $25,000. Your gain is $20,000. The federal government’s portion is up to $5,600.

That card you paid $500 for and sold six months later for $8,000? Held less than a year, which means it’s taxed as ordinary income. At the higher brackets, that’s 37%. You owe $2,775 before your state even shows up to the party.

A dollar lost in taxes is a dollar gone forever.

And for those of you in California or New York, your state is absolutely showing up to the party. More on that in a minute.

The Best Tax Break Nobody Talks About Is Dying With Your Collection

That’s a dark sentence. But it is true.

When you pass a collectible to your heirs, something called a step-up in basis occurs. Your heir receives the collection with a new cost basis equal to its fair market value on the date of your death. Every dollar of appreciation that happened during your lifetime is wiped off the books.

Here is what that means in practice.

You bought a 1986 Fleer basketball card set in 1990 for $10,000. In 2026, it’s worth $100,000. If you sell it today, you pay capital gains tax on $90,000 of appreciation, up to $25,200 in federal taxes alone.

If you pass it to your kids, they inherit it at a $100,000 basis. They turn around and sell it for $100,000. They owe nothing.

Only appreciation after the date they inherited it becomes taxable. The $90,000 you built over 36 years? Completely untaxed.

For collections that have appreciated significantly over decades, this is one of the most powerful estate planning tools available. It requires a professional appraisal to establish the value at the time of death, proper documentation, and a will or trust that is set up correctly. But the math is compelling.

One caveat: Congress has been eyeing this provision for years. It is not guaranteed to exist in its current form indefinitely. If your estate plan depends on this, make sure you are working with an advisor who stays current on tax legislation.

Here is the part most people are not thinking about, and it matters right now.

The step-up in basis only resets the clock. It does not remove the tax obligation going forward. Whatever the collection is worth on the day they inherit it becomes their new starting line. Any appreciation after that point is fully taxable when they sell.

The Ohtani market is up roughly 300% since last spring. Someone who inherited a $10,000 Ohtani collection a year ago and is sitting on $40,000 today has a $30,000 taxable gain waiting for them the moment they sell. They did not plan for that. Most of them do not even know it exists.

And Ohtani is not a unique situation. Markets move. Players break out. A collection that was worth $15,000 at inheritance can be worth $60,000 eighteen months later, and the heir is holding a tax liability they never anticipated.

There is a planning strategy specifically designed for this scenario, and it changes the outcome significantly. I am going to cover it in full in the next post on collectibles and estate planning. If your collection has appreciated meaningfully since you inherited it, that is the one you do not want to miss.

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The 1031 Exchange Myth That Won’t Die

I hear this one constantly. “Can’t I just trade my Mantle for coins and defer the taxes?”

No. You cannot.

A lot of collectors still believe Section 1031 like-kind exchanges apply to cards, coins, art, and other collectibles. They did, until the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 closed that door permanently.

As of January 1, 2018, Section 1031 applies to real property only. Stocks, bonds, collectibles, and personal property of any kind no longer qualify.

If you sell a $50,000 card and immediately reinvest every dollar into another card, you still owe tax on the gain from the sale. The reinvestment does not defer anything.

This myth persists because older content online still describes the pre-2018 rules. I have had clients come in convinced they had a strategy, and it was painful to explain that the strategy had not been legal for years.

There is no like-kind exchange for your collection. Plan accordingly.

Buying and Selling Cards Is a Hobby Until It Isn’t

Here is where a lot of active card flippers get themselves into trouble.

If you are regularly buying and selling collectibles with the intent to make a profit, the IRS may decide you are not a collector at all. You are a dealer. And dealers don’t get the 28% capital gains rate.

Dealers pay ordinary income tax on their profits. They also pay self-employment tax, which adds 15.3% on top of that. On the other hand, they can deduct legitimate business expenses: storage, shipping, grading fees, travel to card shows, subscription tools like Market Movers.

The legal distinction lives in two places. Under IRC Section 1221(a)(1), property held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business is excluded from capital asset treatment — meaning your gains are ordinary income, not capital gains.

The self-employment tax on top of that falls under IRC Section 1401. Together, those two code sections are what turn a profitable hobby into a significantly more expensive tax situation.

The IRS looks at several factors to determine your status. How frequently are you buying and selling? How much time are you spending on it? Are you relying on it for income? Do you have specialized knowledge and expertise in the market?

I will tell you from personal experience that I have been on the wrong side of some of those questions at various points in my card collecting journey. Grace would tell you that the frequency of my transactions has at times been alarming.

If you are flipping consistently and profitably, talk to a tax professional before tax season.

The distinction between investor and dealer has significant financial consequences, and it is not always obvious which side of the line you are standing on.

eBay Is Now Telling the IRS About You

This one catches people off guard every year.

Any platform where you sell, including eBay, COMC, and similar marketplaces, is now required to issue a Form 1099-K if you receive more than $600 in a calendar year. That threshold used to be $20,000. It is now $600.

If you sold anything meaningful this year on a resale platform, the IRS already has a record of it. Your job is to make sure your records match theirs.

That means keeping documentation of every purchase: the date you bought it, what you paid, any grading or authentication fees, and any shipping or transaction costs. Those costs are added to your basis and reduce your taxable gain.

A card you bought for $100, sent to PSA for $20 in grading fees, and sold for $300 has a taxable gain of $180, not $200. Small differences add up quickly when you are running volume.

If you are profitable and selling consistently, you may also owe quarterly estimated taxes. The IRS expects you to pay as you go, not just at April 15. Missing those quarterly payments comes with penalties.

What This Means for You

If you have a collection that has appreciated significantly, the tax implications are real and they compound quickly. The 28% federal rate is higher than most people realize.

The step-up in basis at death is more powerful than most people use. The dealer vs. investor distinction matters more than most active flippers know. And the record-keeping requirements are non-negotiable if you ever want to defend your numbers.

None of this is reason to stop collecting. It is reason to collect with a strategy.

I have spent years buying cards with no strategy and years buying them with one. The difference in outcomes is not subtle.

Next week I will be walking through how to evaluate whether your collection is an asset or a liability in your overall financial plan. Different question than most collectors are asking themselves. Important answer.

If you have a collection worth more than $25,000, sit down with a financial advisor or tax professional who understands collectibles specifically before your next significant purchase or sale. The cost of the conversation is almost always less than the cost of not having it.

I work with collectors, just like myself, on this every day.

Book a Free Collector Strategy Call

The Veefriends character that identifies me with the most, the Entrepreneur Elf.

Want the Same Rush of Opening a Pack in Your Cup?

Most people order a dark roast when they want the caffeine. Darker bean, stronger hit. That is the assumption.

It is backwards.

The roasting process burns off caffeine. A light roast has measurably more caffeine than a dark roast. The bold taste is not the true hit.

Coffee futures hit $3.48 per pound in late 2024, an all-time record. A specialty bag that cost $14 in 2021 runs $28 today. That is a 100% increase in three years.

Your card collection is not the only thing the market has repriced.

Don’t be cheap, buy the good stuff and shop local.

Cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

I sat down with a client recently who had $1.7 million in his 401(k). He called into our office because he was ready to be done. His job in sales was changing, and he could see the writing on the wall with a new change in leadership.

Previously, he had actually worked with a financial advisor and had an additional $450,000 over there. He was looking to consolidate things, and he had heard great things about our firm from a family member.

Reviewing his financial plan, he appeared almost bullet proof. We could reduce the risk in his portfolio but overall, he was in a great position to never run out of money.

Once we had the basics of retirement accounted for, we immediately shifted his attention to the first world problems of having a good nest egg; taxes and estate planning.

Rolling his financial plan into the future visually in front of him, a number appeared that left him speechless. $5.1 million in projected lifetime taxes, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the screen.

“How has this never been called to my attention? Is there anything that can be done?”

That’s the response every client has when they realize that there’s two sides to compounding wealth, growth and taxes.

That’s what I call the compound effect.

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Paying Tax on the Seed vs the Harvest

When you contribute to a 401(k) or IRA, you’re making a deal with the government.
They let you defer taxes now in exchange for access later.

No taxes on the contributions going in, they are even kind enough to give you a tax deduction, and no taxes on the growth while it compounds. You get to watch your account build for decades and there’s zero friction or cause for concern.

The analogy that I always give is that it’s like choosing to pay taxes on the seed or paying taxes on the harvest. By taking the deduction today you’re agreeing to let your silent partner, the federal government, get a cut of the harvest.

Which is worth more, seed today or a plentiful harvest in the future? The harvest in our case is when that $1 you invest becomes $5 in twenty years or $10 in forty years.

At 73 or 75, depending on the year you were born, the IRS comes to collect. The official term is a Required Minimum Distribution. You can call it what it is: a forced withdrawal.

Each year, you take your account balance from December 31st of the prior year, divide it by a life expectancy factor from an IRS table, and that’s your required amount you must pull from your account.

Miss it or take less than your silent partner demands? The penalty is 25% of whatever you didn’t withdraw. This is on top of the income taxes you still owe.

Knowing these conditions exist, you want to make sure you have the appropriate balance between paying taxes on the seed versus the harvest in your financial planning.

The Compounding Trap Nobody Sees Coming

Here’s what caught my client completely off guard, and it catches most people the same way.

He was a conservative spender. Not because he had to be. Just by nature. He didn’t live extravagantly, didn’t plan to, and figured his $1.7 million would carry him through retirement with room to spare.

He was right. His money was going to outlast him comfortably. That was the problem.

Because his spending was conservative, his portfolio kept growing faster than he was drawing it down. A bigger balance means a bigger RMD. Not a little bigger.

Each year, the balance climbs, the life expectancy factor drops, and the required withdrawal goes up again. The IRS table doesn’t care how frugal you are. It sees the balance.

By age 75, his projected RMDs were set to hit $180,000 per year and climbing every year after that. On his current trajectory, the total tax bill across a 35-year retirement landed at $5.1 million.

He’d saved $1.7 million. He was on track to pay three times that in taxes.

The IRS has a very good business model.

And before you assume this is a problem reserved for high earners, run the math on your own accounts.

If your portfolio balance is reasonable and your spending is modest, the same dynamic is at work.

The specific numbers change. The trap doesn’t.

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How RMDs Make Everything Else More Expensive

Required distributions don’t generate a tax bill in isolation. They create ripple effects across your entire retirement income picture, and most people don’t see any of them coming.

Your RMD adds to your ordinary taxable income for the year. The larger that income, the more of your Social Security benefits become taxable.

Single filers above $34,000 in provisional income can see up to 85% of their Social Security benefit subject to federal income tax. Most retirees with sizable RMDs get there faster than they expect.

Then there’s Medicare. The program uses your income from two years prior to set your Part B and Part D premiums. These surcharges, called IRMAA, can add several thousand dollars per year to what you’re paying.

A large RMD in 2026 shows up in your Medicare bill in 2028. You were forced to make a decision in one year and paid for it in two more.

When federal taxes, state taxes, Social Security taxation, and Medicare surcharges all stack together, the effective rate on a retirement dollar can exceed 40%.

I’m trying not to spill my coffee as I tell you that. It’s an ugly number. Most people have no idea it’s waiting for them.

The Golden Window Most People Treat Like a Waiting Room

There’s a stretch of years between roughly ages 59 and 67 that doesn’t get nearly enough attention in most retirement conversations.

At 59 and a half, the 10% early withdrawal penalty on retirement accounts disappears.

Many people are beginning to retire or scale back to part-time work during this window in time, dropping their income.

Social Security hasn’t started yet. RMDs are years away. For the first time in your financial life, you have real control over your taxable income.

This is the window opportunity. And most people treat it like a waiting room.

It’s not a waiting room. It’s the operating room. The decisions made during this window are where lifetime tax savings are actually built.

The tool that does the most work here is called a Roth conversion. You move money from your traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA.

You pay income taxes on that amount now, at today’s rates. After that, the money grows tax-free and you never owe RMDs on it during your lifetime.

The strategy isn’t to convert everything at once. That would push you into the worst bracket possible.

The strategy is bracket-filling. Each year, during this window, you convert just enough to fill your current bracket without spilling into the next one. Then you do it again next year.

Filling the Bracket: What the Numbers Actually Look Like

Back to my client with $1.7 million.

By filling up the 24% tax bracket each year between now and age 75, we are saving him $4.2 million in lifetime taxes. That $4.2 million in tax savings generates another $3.8 million in investment growth.

The growth is fueled by the converted dollars that are now compounding inside a Roth account, tax-free, instead of sitting in a pre-tax account waiting to get taxed at a higher rate later.

Even a more conservative approach, filling only the 22% bracket each year, saves him $1.6 million.

The tax planning alone is projected to add 0.66% annually to his portfolio’s effective rate of return.

Most people spend significant energy chasing an extra fraction of a percent in investment performance. They pay almost no attention to the tax drag running quietly in the background.

This is the better place to look.

He sat back in his chair and said, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this?”

That is the question I hear more than any other.

What To Do This Week

Pull up your retirement account balances. Add them together. Now project what that number looks like at 75 if your portfolio grows at even a modest rate and your spending stays conservative.

Use the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table to calculate what your RMD would be at that balance.

If the number surprises you, good. That’s the first step.

Then look at your current taxable income for this year. The difference between where you are and the top of your tax bracket is your potential Roth conversion budget for 2026.

That’s real money you can move to tax-free growth before this window closes.

My client had $1.7 million saved and a $5.1 million tax bill he didn’t know existed.

Twelve months from now, he’s on an entirely different trajectory. The window is open.

The comments are where you can pull up a chair. If you’ve run your numbers and the RMD projection surprised you, I’d genuinely like to hear about it.

Onyx Eclipse

I recently just picked up a bag of Onyx Eclipse at the flagship Onyx location in Rogers, Arkansas. If you’re ever traveling or passing through Northwest Arkansas it’s a must visit location.

In the past I’ve only had Onyx’s fruitier acidic and Southern Weather blends. Southern Weather is one of my favorite roasts I’ve ever had, period. This time however, I branched out and bought their Eclipse which is a dark roast.

I fired that baby up in my Moccamaster the next morning, oh man is it good.

If you enjoy a dark roast and do not like acidic stuff, it is right up your alley. It’s not bitter, in fact it’s very smooth for being a dark roast. I highly recommend it!

May your taxes stay low and your mugs forever full, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Not associated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, Medicare or any other government agency.

Maximizing your Social Security Benefits assumes foreknowledge of your date of death. If as an example you wait to claim a higher monthly benefit amount but predecease your average life expectancy, it would have been better to claim your benefits at an earlier age with reduced benefits.

Converting an employer plan account or Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. Increased taxable income from the Roth IRA conversion may have several consequences including but not limited to, a need for additional tax withholding or estimated tax payments, the loss of certain tax deductions and credits, and higher taxes on Social Security benefits and higher Medicare premiums. Be sure to consult with a qualified tax advisor before making any decisions regarding your IRA.

Football and Pokémon cards were big for us too, but baseball has always been what I loved. After the age of ten, I would say I got disconnected from the hobby. Back then it wasn’t exactly cool to be opening packs of cards while you were in junior high.

In 2023 a friend of mine had started selling cards on eBay. Hearing that people were still collecting cards, let along making money with them, was like seeing electricity for the first time.

I jumped back in, hardcore. Grace was about to commit me to a mental institution at the rate that I was buying cards. Early on, her concerns were valid. I was buying cards with zero strategy and losing money most of the time.

Thankfully, at that time, I was not buying big items. When I say that I lost money, we are talking $10-15 here or there. Losing $10 when you spent $20 is still losing half of your money though.

My first big purchase was a Shohei Ohtani rookie card in PSA 10 condition, which means gem mint, for $185. Two months later I sold that card for $350. Ever since that day, I haven’t looked back.

This week, I sold two baseball cards that I traded for less than 30 days ago for a 50% return on my money.

Today, I’ll be sharing with you how you can identify hobbies that you are both passionate about and experienced in to achieve similar outcomes yourself.

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Go Narrow on What You Know Very Well

Now that I have you convinced that I’m a sports card savant, I’ll share with you how I’ve lost my shorts buying things. Then you’ll realize I’m not that special and anyone can do this.

Here is a list of the sports that I’ve lost more money than I’ve made when it comes to card collecting:

• Basketball

• Football

• Hockey

What’s the common theme in all three of these sports? I do not know the market for them, at all.

Basketball and football collectors have a completely different mindset and the way their markets move is way more volatile than baseball. Hockey, well that’s for the Canadians.

Whether you’re into sports cards or not, this principal can apply to anything that you’re into (watches, cars, art, etc.).

There’s only so many things you can be an expert in. The jack of all trades is the master of none.

Using myself as the reference, I learned the hard way that trying to do too many things at once does not work at a high level.

Here’s what would happen. I would make $200 selling a baseball card. Then I’d turn right around and lose $300 trying to do the same thing with a basketball or football card.

After putting my hand on the hot stove and getting burned a bunch of times, it finally clicked that maybe I should just focus on the thing that I’m consistently getting results from.

You have something that you know extremely well yourself. In a world with unlimited possibilities, you too will be tempted to chase the lady in the red dress down the street.

Staying narrow on what you’re extremely knowledgeable in is the first step to making money.

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Track the Market for Whatever You’re Purchasing

In 2026, anything with legitimate value has a marketplace. There are ways to track the values of cars, watches, sports cards, you name it.

I personally use what’s called Market Movers for my sports card collection. Just like this image below; it will tell me the current price of a card, how much it’s gone up or down, the total population at a certain grade, and more.

Side note, this card is on my 2026 vision board. It’s not in my collection yet but it will be soon.

If you do not have a way to track the values of what you will be collecting or selling, I would not suggest that you attempt doing so. Would you ever buy an investment, business, or real estate without knowing how it compares to the overall market?

By tracking and understanding the market that you’re knowledgeable in, you will be able to quickly spot buying and selling opportunities. This reduces some of your risk and enhances your ability to turn a profit quickly.

Most marketplaces, like eBay, have pricing history that you can use to track the price of things for free. If you’re getting serious about collecting or selling, most categories have apps where you can pay a subscription to track the data.

Market Movers costs me $20 a month but it’s worth the investment. The ability to make informed decisions quickly pays dividends.

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Only Buy Things That You’re Comfortable Not Selling

This one took me a while to learn.

Early on, I was buying cards purely because I thought I could flip them fast. The problem with that mindset is that when the market moves against you, you’re stuck holding something you don’t even want. That’s a bad place to be.

The rule I live by now is simple. If I couldn’t sell this card for the next two years, would I still want it? If the answer is no, I don’t buy it. If the answer is yes, I buy it with confidence.

The Ohtani rookie card I mentioned earlier is a perfect example. When I bought it, I would have been thrilled to hold it forever. It also happened to double in value in two months. That’s not a coincidence. The things that are worth owning are the things that are worth holding.

This keeps you out of panic selling too. If you bought something you genuinely love a temporary dip in the market doesn’t rattle you.

You know what you have. You know the market will come back. You can afford to be patient, and patience is where the real money is made.

Buy things you’re proud to own. The profits tend to follow.

Don’t Be Greedy

The market for anything moves. What something is worth today is not what it will be worth in six months.

Players get injured, trends shift, collectors move on, and the market adjusts. The same is true for watches, cars, art, or whatever your thing is.

This is where most collectors leave money on the table. They fall in love with their collection. The card that doubled sits in their case because it means something. Even worse, is when you are thinking greedy that it will continue to go up.

Here’s what I’ve learned. If I can hit my number, I move it. I can always buy back in on the next opportunity. Money sitting in a card that already peaked is money I could be putting to work somewhere else.

The two cards I just sold for 50%? I liked those cards. I still moved them.

The goal is to keep compounding your returns in a market you know better than almost anyone else. With those returns you can reinvest into items that you truly love and desire to hold long term.

Heroes Coffee

Getting back into collecting, I had a lot to learn. My morning ritual at the time was that I would wake up and go to the gym and then drive over to Heroes Coffee in Rogers, Arkansas to read books on sports card collecting before I started working.

Given that this is a post about making money from many of the things I read about in their shop, I feel like it’s timely to shout them out.

I’ve always enjoyed Heroes’ Costa Rican roast or their Black Satin. The Black Satin is a darker roast, but it is extremely good, especially paired with cream.

My recommendation would be visiting their Pinnacle Hills location in Rogers. It has very unique indoor and outdoor seating in a beautiful part of town.

Drink local, cheers!

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

63% of women outlive their husbands, when they do they live ten years longer on average. 69% of women over the age of 65 have already experienced widowhood.

Speaking from personal experience, my grandmother has outlived my grandfather by 23 years. Speaking from business experience, our clientele is increasingly divorced or widowed women. I only expect for that to grow over the next decade.

In financial planning, it’s the topic that gets overlooked. It’s without question that while overlooked, planning is prioritized and needed for widows more than any other group of people.

If you’re a widow reading this, any of the following scenarios may resonate with you.

Your spouse made almost all of the financial decisions and you’re not sure where to begin financially.

Your spouse had a good relationship with a financial advisor, accountant, or attorney; the reality now is that you do not know these people very well, can you trust them?

You feel tremendous uncertainty and you’re scared to spend money, you’re afraid you will run out and be a burden on your children. Even worse, you may not have anyone to take care of you.

These are all completely normal reactions; you are not alone. I’m here to tell you today, you’re going to be fine.

What if I told you that all of the things you worry about and that society tells you that you should be worried about, aren’t actually the threat to your financial security?

You’re in a way better position than you realize. The first part of understanding your reality is focusing on what needs to be covered and protected.

We will cover those areas today and more in-depth going forward, let’s dive in.

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Make Sure Your Expenses Are Guaranteed to Be Covered

The first and most important step towards feeling more confident is by having an income plan.

A mistake that is commonly made is the tendency to inflate the amount you think you’ll need based on circumstances you are afraid of or could see happening. That is why you’ll have a designated emergency fund.

You want to prioritize and make sure that your basic expenses are covered. Food, housing, insurance, and the lifestyle activities that you enjoy doing. Every time that I do this exercise with a widow, they are shocked at how low this number is.

The average that I see ranges between $2,000-3,000 a month to cover all of the necessary and required expenses.

Most of the time, a widow’s social security and surviving spouse’s benefits are equal or greater to this amount. If they are short, it’s typically by a few hundred dollars. I’ve never seen a widow that has a deficit of thousands of dollars every month.

In your free time, take yourself through the exercise of adding up your essential expenses and your guaranteed income sources. If they are already covered today, your probability of never running out of money is over 95%!

Your reality is that you’ll most likely spend less than you did when your spouse with alive. Every once in a while, you’ll take a trip with a friend or your children.

Those additional experiences most of the time can easily be covered by taking income from your investments, annuities, and other strategies in a manner that reduces your risk of dwindling those accounts to zero.

For the sake of time today, I won’t be going in depth on any of those specific strategies. Each week I will continue to educate further on what they are and how they work most effectively in different situations.

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Take More Risk Than You Think You Should

This suggestion, not advice, is counterculture. When big life events happen, there is a tendency to take your foot off the gas.

Ultimately, the amount of risk that you take is based on your circumstance and risk tolerance. Speaking from experience, widows tend to be more risk averse.

One dollar invested today has historically become five dollars in twenty years across all different types of market cycles. That means if you have $100,000 invested today that it will more than likely compound to be worth $500,000 in twenty years.

Imagine you’re 64 reading this today, twenty years from now you’ll be 84. Two things are likely to occur based on history and innovation:

1. As you age, you have increased healthcare costs.

2. Healthcare will improve and you’ll feel like you’re only 74. You might have a shot at making it to age 100.

In either of these situations, you’ll be happy that you have more money. You’ll have access to better care, facilities, and doctors. Or if expenses rise above what your fixed income covers, you’ll have extra money saved to live on.

The only person who wins by having all of your money in a savings account or CD, is the bank. They will take your money and take the risk that you should be taking, all while handing you 2-3% back on your money if you are lucky.

By taking more risk, in a calculated and appropriate way, you are taking care of your future self. You’ll age with dignity and peace of mind.

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Have a Tax Plan

No one gets taken advantage of more by the tax code than ill-prepared widows. Our widows that are 75 and older are paying an astonishing amount of taxes.

Why? It is because of what’s called a required minimum distribution. This is the amount of money that the government forces you to take from a 401(k) or IRA after the age of 73 or 75 depending on your date of birth.

Here is what happens. Your spouse dies after handling the finances for years, leaving all of the accounts to you. You are scared to spend the money or do anything else with it, after all this is mostly new to you.

Your financial advisor and CPA don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t know you as well so they would rather you keep everything the same than push the envelope with the fear they lose your business.

Ten years pass by and that $300,000 IRA surprisingly grew to $750,000. All of them failed to mention what you find out when you get a letter instructing you to take $30,000 out.

Tax planning historically is done in reverse. You file and prepare taxes based on what previously happened.

Planning for taxes as a widow has to be switched from reactive to proactive. You must have a forward-looking approach to your planning.

Here are the tax planning numbers based on real client experiences at Revolutionary Wealth:

• Age 59-63: $850,000 in lifetime tax savings

• Age 64-68: $495,000 in lifetime tax savings

• Age 69-73: $50,000 in lifetime tax savings

The earlier you are in this age cycle, the more you are rewarded for being proactive with planning for taxation. No, you don’t need to be a widow to be proactive.

A lack of tax planning will cost you anywhere from 0.5% to 1.5% rate of return annually on your money. You can get nothing else right as a widow but if you plan for taxes, you will be significantly better off.

If you’d like to know more specifics on how you can be proactive, keep up with my content every week as I go more in-depth on different strategies you can use to reduce taxes during your retirement.

Spend Time with People You Love

Time is an invaluable thing. The things that bring us the most joy in life often do not cost very much money.

Picking your grandchildren up from school, a cup of coffee with a dear friend, or being involved in a group that gets together a few times a month.

It is the love in our life and the time spent with those we care about that truly matters. Nothing will give you more peace or resolve than focusing on these core areas.

When you realize that the areas that really matter cost you little to nothing, all other fear and insecurity fades away. Materialism is the root of our discontent and unhappiness.

What I’ll remember most with my widowed grandmother is the times she picked me up from school, read me stories when I was falling asleep, and taught me about the way things used to be.

I remember the trips she went with us on, but I can’t tell you what she bought me.

Take the trip and spend time with the people you love. Nothing will help your financial confidence more.

If you do it right, your family won’t want your money. They will just want more time.

Which means if the worst-case scenario really did ever happen, you’ll still have the only thing that matters.

Folgers Black at Four

It’s blasphemy to discuss Folgers after hyping up local coffee but for the special widow in my life, I’ll turn back the clock to reminisce.

The true roots of my love of coffee are truly from time spent with my Nana. Any time I would stay the night or come over after weights, we always drank coffee together.

Folgers black and sugar, great for the growth of any four-year-old ha-ha. Zero cream, no sugar alternatives, just black coffee and cane sugar at four years old.

Taking it further, she’s always made instant coffee. Hardee’s coffee was a delicacy and I still today high key like McDonald’s coffee.

I’m not sure my Nana has spent more than $50 on her and I’s coffee moments. Yet it is a core memory with her that I still think about often to this day.

She always said, “this will stunt your growth” right before she handed it to me, I still need to ask her what her motives were. I’m 6’2 so I guess we can rule that one out.

To building your own memories over a cup of coffee, cheers.

Disclosures:

This blog contains general information that may not be suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed in this blog will come to pass. Investing in the stock market involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Revolutionary Wealth LLC does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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The cold hard fact of life is that there are owners and there are others. There are people who own, create, or sell things. Then there’s people who work in them.

Individuals who work inside of businesses but possess an ownership mindset work their way to top and run the show. If you read this today and say, “business ownership just isn’t for me,” I would highly encourage you to work on your ownership mindset.

In ten years, and I hope I’m wrong about this, the only people left employed with meaningful income will be those who own the business and the person running it with an ownership mindset. The exception to this being those working in trades which will be discussed today.

You must take ownership of your situation, right now. There has never been a better time in human history to be in the driver’s seat of life with every single tool and resource at your disposal.

Tired of working that job you hate? Starting at the bottom with big goals to make it to the top? The solution is ownership. You can either own a business, or you can have the ownership mindset.

I’m going to try and not spill my coffee as I jump down from my soap box.

In this post, those that are interested in business ownership are going to learn the three filters to know if a business is worth buying.

After all, nobody wants to buy another job that they hate and costs them money.

Recession-Resistant

The first thing to ask yourself when looking to buy a business is the following question, “Is this business recession proof?” The second important question to ask is, “How will this business be affected by AI?”

Notice how I said how will, not will this business be affected by AI. We are all going to be affected by AI, period.

“Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same.” - Thanos

The industries least likely to get affected, they will more than likely grow, by AI are the trades. Plumbing, electrical work, welding, you name it. These are also extremely recession proof businesses.

Essential services like pest control and waste, cybersecurity, healthcare, and financial are also very recession proof industries. Healthcare and financial services definitely have risk with AI attached to them but it’s mainly for those below the ownership level.

I’ve been dead broke and had a guy come spray for spiders. Someone could be living in their own little AI world on their phone but the second a spider lands on their shirt, they will call the pest control company.

Another exercise I would highly recommend before buying a business is asking ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. how they could wipe you out if you purchased a certain business. Chat is a yes man, so you’ll have to press to get the truth.

If you do not ask that question, the other guy in town who will be your competition is going to ask the same AI model how they can wipe you out. If you know how many bullets are in the chamber ahead of time, you can have a plan to disarm them.

Even better, you’ll find a way to get those bullets in your gun.

They are going to add another bankruptcy chapter in the AI era: Chapter FAFO.

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Don’t Buy a Job - Buy Profit

Anyone who does not own a business romanticizes the idea of it. All the money they will make, having a big brand, launching a new product or service.

Here’s the truth, businesses are dirty and hard. People don’t actually just walk in and do business because they saw your sign on the side of the road. They’ll share a post on Facebook saying shop local right before they place an order from Amazon.

Knowing that no matter what business you buy will be challenging, you want to make it easier on yourself in the beginning. The good news is there’s only one thing you need to look for to get a headstart.

The one thing that matters, profit. You want to buy a business profitable enough to pay yourself for all the effort and sacrifice. Taking it further, you want a business that’s established and profitable enough that it retains and pays the people who will help run it.

If you do not do this, you will feel like you just took out a loan or sunk your life savings into a job that’s way more stressful than your previous 9 to 5.

To make matters worse, it gets terrifying if you buy a business and take financial risk with zero evidence that it will earn enough to pay you or the bank back.

Make this your order of priority when evaluating the profit of a business:

1. The existing profit covers debt costs or a return on your investment.

2. The existing profit will pay for employees to run the business.

3. The existing profit will pay you for your effort and sacrifice.

Your compensation comes last because if you do this right, you will own an asset that pays for itself. The worst-case scenario is you maintain your job until the business has grown enough to cover all three.

Ignore revenue, focus on the profit.

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Room to Optimize

Want to accumulate wealth? Focus on buying a valuable business.

If you want to expedite the rate at which you accumulate wealth, focus on owning a valuable business and making it even more valuable than it is today.

Once you’ve found a recession proof business with profit, now you have to lift the hood of the car. Is this business firing on all cylinders?

Last year we had centipedes, it was time to call pest control. I called a local place and they came out promptly. There was only one problem, and it wasn’t mine.

The technician came out with a clipboard, wrote me a paper invoice (after performing the service), and asked if I had a check. I asked if he could take a card which he could not. He gave me the address to their office for me to go pay in person by card, they didn’t have a billing link.

I walked into their office with wood paneling and the first thing I saw was a fax machine. The receptionist had to manually type my card into their computer system. You most likely think I’m being dramatic and making this story up, but every single detail is true.

Businesses like the one I’m describing are gold mine opportunities. They have been around for over 50 years, and they still operate like it. That means they have tons of inbound traffic, brand credibility, and profit.

When you start the discovery process of finding a business, observe your surroundings. Do they have a clear sales process? Are they up to date on technology? How do they process billing? How do their prices compare to others in the area?

The goal is to not reinvent the business, after all they made it 50 years for a reason. However, optimizing and bringing that great brand into the 21st century unlocks unlimited possibilities.

Imagine had the technician been coached to respond to me, “I sure can, it’s $150 for a card today or if you bring a check by our office, we will discount it to $100.” I would have paid $150. The $100 price, if I cheap out, is what the original price was going to be anyway.

A 50% increase in profit just optimizing one area of the business. These opportunities exist everywhere.

An increase in profit will directly increase the value of the business. Finding a business that can be optimized is the fastest way to double your net worth in less than twelve months.

The One Question That Matters Most

After filtering the business in all three areas, you have to ask yourself one question.

“Am I willing to walk away from this opportunity?”

The correct answer is the opposite of what you would expect, you have to be able and willing to walk away. The inability to do so makes you emotional and vulnerable.

You’ll get negotiated into a higher price, bad terms, or terrible financing. You’ll allow them to skip steps or not provide you certain pieces of information.

Being willing to walk away does not mean you are not going to fight hard for the deal. What it does mean is that you’re willing to draw a line in the sand for the protection of yourself and others.

Buying a business is high stakes. You have to know when to hold, know when to fold, and know when to walk away.

My Favorite Drink

Someone asked me the other day what my favorite drink is when I’m cutting loose. Grace and I get one or two coffee dates a year to ourselves these days.

My favorite drink order, when I’m not drinking a drip coffee, is a honey latte. If I’m feeling extra crazy, I’ll add some cinnamon to it.

Ironically my cutting loose drink is the same as my sore throat drink, it’s an absolute must have when you’re feeling under the weather.

Send me a message and tell me what your favorite drink is and from where!

As always, cheers.

Growing up, I couldn’t wait to start working and making money. As soon as I was able to drive, I was looking under every rock to find employment. Finish Line didn’t want me despite my vast expertise with Jordans, and I had and still have zero business working in food service.

After a dozen job applications, I landed my prestigious role at Office Max. Do you remember the scene in Titanic where they are playing their instruments as the ship is going down? That was basically my job working at an office supply store in the 2010s.

I was even making a cool $1.25 above the minimum wage, I felt rich. That Spring I had taken a Dave Ramsey course, so saving was a priority for me at that time. After all, I was under the impression that I could put all of my money in envelopes and be well off someday.

The person in my life who taught and spoke to me about money was my Nana. Simple lessons like turning the car off when you’re parked, don’t spend more than you make.

When I informed her of my newfound wealth and desire to save, she gave me this advice. “Go down to the bank and get yourself a CD, they are paying 8% interest.” I’m not very bright but I knew that was an unbelievable rate.

Much to my surprise when I walked into the bank and asked for an 8% interest CD, I found out that I was about 7.7% too high. 0.3% to let the bank hold my money for six months.

CDs were paying 8% interest in 1984, not in the Summer of 2014.

Saving is Linear. Wealth Isn’t.

The fundamental truth I learned in 2014 is that you can’t save your way to abundance.

You can however save your way to financial security. Saving is like the foundation of a house. Without that stability or if cracks are formed, your planning will be short lived when the storms of life blow through.

The problem with saving advice in 2026 is that it is stuck in the 1980s, like the advice my Nana gave me. Every guru has their quick fix and emergency fund advice which are all reasonable solutions.

The common issue is that all of these gurus are giving advice based on strategies that pre-date the internet and hold on to the merit that cash earns real money. There is also declining trust in the dollar and the banking system as a whole at the time of this writing.

Imagine you follow a system of setting aside money for saving in an envelope every month. Your goal is to set aside a million dollars by the time you reach sixty years old and you’re thirty-five.

Using today’s figures for high interest savings, which are near 3% interest, you would need to save $2,300 a month to reach your goal! Taking it further, it will take 24 years for your money to double at that rate.

You cannot save your way to wealth. Saving money with the expectation of becoming wealthy is like driving a Honda Civic and expecting to win the Daytona 500.

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Wealth Compounds. Saving Does Not.

There is a simple formula that can be followed for wealth building, it’s called The Rule of 72.

The Rule of 72 determines how long it will take for your money to double based on a certain interest rate. You simply take the number 72 and divide it by the desired rate you’d like to earn on your money.

Here is an example, you put $1,000 into an index fund that has averaged an 8% annual return, and you’d like to know when to expect your money to double. You would take 72/8, which equals 9. It would take nine years for your $1,000 to turn into $2,000 at an 8% annual return.

The same can be done with other assets like a business or real estate. If your business is growing by 15% a year, that means you’re on a trajectory to double the value of your business every five years.

Saving money in a bank account earning no interest or throwing cash underneath your mattress does not give you these benefits. It’s a strategy that does not reward you for your effort or hard work.

Said differently, wealth does not find you by saving five times more than your neighbor. Wealth is the reward for you taking advantage of opportunity that compounds over time.

Ownership Is How Wealth Is Built

What do Elon Musk and the old man in your town who owns a chain of laundromats have in common? They own things.

It took me four years getting a finance degree, seven years’ worth of client meetings, and an unfortunate business mistake to learn what I’m sharing with you now.

The most financially successful individuals have ownership in something.

If you want to accumulate wealth, focus on owning something valuable. If you want to expedite the rate at which you accumulate wealth, focus on owning something and making it even more valuable than it is today.

Did you know that Elon Musk wasn’t actually the person who came up with Tesla? He came up with what it is today and beyond, but he wasn’t actually the person who started the company.

You don’t have to be Elon Musk, but you can easily do something similar at whatever level is attainable and exciting for you. You can buy an existing business in your town, streamline and update its services, and make it more valuable.

Not entrepreneurial or have what it takes to run a business? Have ownership in the 500 largest companies in the United States. It’s called the S&P 500, and you can easily have ownership just by investing in the index.

Ownership does not always mean responsibility. It does however require skin in the game. One of my favorite quotes from the book The Richest Man in Babylon is “lady luck shows her hand to those who take action.”

You must take action and ownership has risk. The reward for action and risk is wealth that endures and compounds faster than any amount of effort spent saving.

My next post will be focused exclusively on how to find an existing business that is worth owning and strategies you can leverage to increase its value after you purchase it.

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Where To Start

If you want to be wealthy, you have to commit to owning something. You do not need to commit to being a business owner, but you should not let that be your excuse to not be an owner.

Investing in stocks, indexes, real estate, etc. are all a gateway to ownership. Ultimately it comes down to your goals and how much responsibility you want to take on that will determine which path is best for your situation.

Responsibility does not always equal a better outcome. Most business owners would tell you their business has not grown as fast as a stock portfolio.

I will continue to educate on how to identify opportunities, the pitfalls to watch out for, and things you should personally consider as you work to accelerate your wealth building.

The only silver bullets to success are action and commitment. Everything else is misleading and out of your control.

How I Started Tasting the Notes in Coffee

Notes, for those less familiar with coffee, are the scent and taste within the roast. Some roasts are fruity, acidic, sweet, nutty, chocolaty, or floral.

Grace and other coffee savants could give you a professional and distinguished answer on how to taste and identify notes in coffee. I am not a professional or a savant, but I have drunk enough coffee to now know exactly what I’m tasting.

Here is my completely average joe answer for how I learned to taste the notes in coffee. I started drinking fruity and acidic coffee, which is not my personal favorite.

Fruity and acidic coffee is potent; you’ll know if you love it or hate it pretty quickly. In my average joe opinion, it’s on the far end of the taste spectrum from an extremely dark roast.

After sipping on that for a while, then I shifted over to nuttier and chocolaty flavors. For whatever reason, I could immediately pick them up.

I know I’m going to love a roast when I see some sort of combination of a nut, chocolate, and blueberry.

Try the average joe method for yourself and tell me what you think.

I’ll see you in a few days, cheers!