Michael Lynch is the award-winning financial planner and the author of Keep it simple, Make it Big. He is a Certified Financial Planner with nearly twenty years of experience working with American families to craft plans that fund their dreams, educate their children, and finance their retirement.
Michael Lynch has been doing financial planning with businesses and business owners, professionals, and even janitors for about 20 years. He got into it after a successful career in media, in the think tank world. He is passionate about helping people really live the best life they possibly can and finance it. He accumulates wealth, uses wealth, and enjoys their life.
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Cutting through the BS to put you back in charge of your wealth with Michael Lynch, CFP
Brett:
I’m excited about the next guest. He is the award-winning financial planner and the author of Keep it simple, Make it Big. Please welcome the show with me, Mike Lynch. Hey, Mike, how are you doing today?
Michael:
Doing great. Doing great, Brett. Doing great.
Brett:
Well, I’m excited to have you on the show. And to dive into your story a bit. And can we start right there? Would you give our listeners a little bit more about your story and your current focus?
Michael:
Okay, well, I’ve been doing financial planning with businesses and business owners, professionals, and even janitors for about 20 years. And I got into it after a successful career in media, in the think tank world. And what I’m just really passionate about is helping people really live the best life they possibly can and finance it, just simply finance it. So accumulate wealth, use wealth, and enjoy their life. It’s just a great field and a great career. And, yeah, so that’s what I do. Beautiful love that.
Brett:
And to help our listeners get to know you a little bit better. By the way, Mike’s out of the great state of Connecticut. And, but I’m not sure exactly where you grew up, and you can maybe go back to those days, Mike, but I believe we’ve all been given certain gifts in this world, Mike, some people call a superpower. Some people call them strengths. Not only these gifts have been given to each of us as a way to be a blessing and help others. So I’m curious, maybe what are those one or two gifts that you’ve been given? And how do you believe or what do you do? How do those help how you help people today?
Michael:
Well, I think the first thing that I try to teach is my son who’s 16. I was given a gift to great parents. And I think if you choose your parents, right, life’s a lot better. So I was fortunate enough to choose my parents, right. And what my parents gave me was a love of people, a love of hard work. One of my clients once said, Mike, You once told us it was a blessing to have hard work to do. And I do believe that I love what I do. And that just makes everyday fun. And then also, as the editor told me, back when I was the least educated and polished person on our staff, Mike, you have a great bs detector. And I can always, I’m not gonna say I can always see through it. But I can see through a lot. So I think if you apply a work ethic, you play a caring role for people, other than it was my philosophy. political philosophy is very nobody likes it. individualist, very more libertarian free minds, free-market type of guy. But I always believe that peoples are in and of themselves, not a means to anybody else’s end. And so if you treat it like my business, working with households, families, and people, if it’s a gift to be able to treat everybody the way they want to be treated, the golden rule says to treat people the way you want to be treated. The Platinum rule says to treat people the way they want to be treated. And I think when we apply the Platinum rule man we can get through a lot together. And it really works out it really works out
Brett:
Very well said and a lot fair. And I imagine keeping it simple, making it a big book, maybe dives into more of those things. But that is I love the way you put that right and I think I’m lucky to Mike I’m more of the self-independent libertarian type of thought right? More of giving, give more freedom and give more. Give more, I guess power to the people if you will, versus big. But you want to expand on that a little bit.
Michael:
Sure. And I will do another thing about me is actually I grew up right down the road from you and Davis and my family business which has now transferred For four times, General engineering, underground construction, and so I grew up while I was welding by the time I was 13. I have my truck license at 18. So I kind of bounced from the heavy construction world to the college in the white-collar world. And being able to do that, again gives you a lot of respect for people. And it really equalizes things because the first thing I figured out, we all think college professors are smart. Why? Because they use big words to confuse people, but put a college professor on a construction site for about 10 minutes and see how confused they are with the big words we use. Right? Like it’s just all jargon like I’m a big believer. And we’re all pretty much the same with just some of us having different strengths, we look at the world differently. And it’s that diversity allows us to go that allows us really to, to move forward. So now again, one of the things that I think is absolutely fantastic, is our financial system, and our personal financial system. You’ll hear people cry, complain, moan, oh, pensions are gone. We need pensions. Oh, we need a lifetime annuity. A couple of points on that one. Most people never ever had pensions. It was just a few people that work for big corporations or governments. Second, in those days, the standard of living was a lot lower. People didn’t retire with a lot of money. They didn’t pass a lot of wealth on, did they? It was your business owners that could pass well, but your average person, whether they have a bank account, a small whole life policy, and a low standard Living Social Security, and maybe they were for the government or Corporation, a small pension. What do we have now, 401 K’s where you can put 19,000 a year way in, we hear a lot all people don’t have access to retirement plans. Really. Everybody can have an IRA and you can get an IRA everywhere, including probably 711 if you wanted to. So that allows everybody to put $6,000 in. So the people that don’t have access to retirement plans typically are lower-paid work for lower-income. They have low wages, a problem with lower compensation, correct? Well, 6000 is 10% of 60,000. If you invest 10% of what you earn right out of the chute in your 20s you don’t even have to work in your 60s. And it doesn’t matter how much you earn if you do 10%. So everybody in America does have access to a retirement plan. That’s another bit of BS that we have that we always hear out of Washington and the mainstream press and the journalists, it’s just simply don’t know how the world works. And then you take the tools and you layer it on where you got IRAs, you got 401 K’s, you have Roth IRA, so you can tax arbitrage when you’re young and not making anything put in a Roth, my son’s 16 he’s already got a Roth IRA. Why cuz you work this summer, and I put the money in a Roth for him, that’s gonna be a million dollars based on trend line returns. By the time he’s old, like me, it’s unbelievable the tools that are available health savings accounts, right out of college, when I was 30 years young. That’s what I was, I was working in a free-market think tank in San Francisco Pacific Research Institute for a woman by the name of psi pipes, who is a Canadian economist who didn’t really like single-payer health care. So we were talking, I was giving speeches on health savings accounts, saying this is a solution. Let people have their tax break, invest their money, and carry it with them. We got that now. This is just unbelievable. So getting to your point, we’ll transfer and taxes. This generation has come in now. My clients, my generation, your generation, the amount of wealth we’re gonna accumulate, because of this fantastic accidental much-maligned personal finances in the United States of America based on personal responsibility, personal savings, and deferring your taxes that they’re going to read patient policies are going to grab from you right now. And it’s gonna get worse. That is, it’s, it’s really going to create intergenerational wealth. And we’re just now scratching the surface. So yeah, I tend to be positive, I tend to be optimistic, and I tend to have real passionate anger towards the constant negativity that is in every single thing you write by somebody that doesn’t know what they’re talking about, which is the sage journalists, right? Whether they’re personal finance or otherwise because they don’t work with the people that are on the ground. They don’t know what’s right but they don’t know what’s going on.
Brett:
Yeah, I love how you’re connecting, you know, Wall Street or Main Street and working I have a similar background By the way, I grew up in the Bay Area my dad building custom homes right? by Bob Katz hammering nails moving Bryce right. Learning that hard work is like really hard work says we would wake up early in the morning. I mean, it would be before the sunrise. He wouldn’t have the most healthy breakfast we stop at McDonald’s in a real quick biscuit, you know, and sausage, you know, Patty, whatever. And then we would work and then about noon or so the taco wagon would come by and it would be ringing. I’ve never run it over there. Yep, and then we would work another, I don’t know, five or six. For us. It was kind of Work. We’re pretty young, my brother and I, but he got the bobcat job. I would watch him. At one point, he’s driving the bobcat, and he’s moving some dirt. And I don’t know, he’s got to be maybe 11 years old, maybe I’m nine, maybe he’s Tammy eight, pretty young, probably even younger, I want to say maybe he was eight, and I was six. And he’s on the edge of this. This, you know, building out a pool for somebody I don’t exactly. And he’s, he’s, he’s like, on the edge of, it’s too heavy. And he’s about to tilt over. And he’s screaming, and I’m just going, Wow, I mean, those types of things. And then you connect that I like the way you put it like you put a university professor on a job site, and they’re going to be confused or to opt-in, we’re taking something and perhaps putting false beliefs that are too complex, it’s too much. And you’re going No, it’s not actually, and if you just get with someone like Mike Lynch, and help them to clarify your wealth plan and clarify what’s real, and what’s BS, right. Is that a fair summary?
Michael:
Yeah, I think so, and what tools you have available to you. So different people have different tools. And different people have different relationships to that great tax code and regulatory structure that we have out there called the United States and then state governments. And so the advice that you hear whether I’m giving it to you right now, I did a radio show for 10 years, the first thing I said is don’t take advice off the radio, we don’t know your situation or the person at the watercooler. We don’t know your situation. There’s a big famous guy. He’s a personal finance commentator, I like him a lot. I actually do. I like his values. But he’s talking to people with an average household income of 45 $50,000. That’s very different from talking to people with an average income of 152 5354 50 $500,000. You have different relationships to debt, different nations, that taxes, different relationships to what the true risks are. And so you need a customized plan. But once you figure out where you are, the reason why I get simple, is you exclude everything else, you exclude everything else. When you’re going waterskiing, you don’t have to worry about what the snow skiing equipment is because it’s not for you, you’re going to be in the water being yanked behind a boat. When you’re going cotton, you’re figuring out what kind of shotgun you need. You’re not worrying about what the town test is on the fishing line. And that’s how wealth is people. If you get to know yourself, you get to understand your situation and your situation will likely be understandable and pretty simple and clear how you go about to really jack up and build your wealth, right? for financial independence.
Brett:
Yep, beautiful thing. That’s amazing. I want to dive into maybe some of the biggest secrets because our show is mostly high net worth individuals selling businesses or real estate or other highly appreciated assets. And they know about capital gains tax. They know about 1031 exchanges and maybe learning about the deferred sales trust for the first time, which is what we specialize in. I’m curious, Mike, what are some of the biggest secrets for high net worth individuals to keep it simple, right, and not make mistakes with the wealth accumulated?
Michael:
Yeah, okay. Well, you know, one of the things is speaking of business, we just, I just transacted a business transaction for our last family business. And it was a joy in my life. Because again, I said, I picked good parents, and I did. And oh, by the way, my mom used to get up at 5 am make me and my brother full breakfast, and then put us on a construction job. And then she would go back to bed. So that’s how good my mom was. But anyway, when we got the proceeds, and you know, going to work with the proceeds. There’s no magic to really investing when you’re looking at the security market, you got cash, you got bonds or fixed income, and you got equity or stock. And then from your point of view, you got real estate, right, which is basically an equity asset, but it has some unique characteristics, but it’s a capital asset and it’s an equity asset, right? Correct. So the point is, don’t get bamboozled by I got a better mousetrap. I can predict the market. I can time you in and out. I’m worth a 2% fee and then 20% of your upside. I won’t do it. Right. Keep it simple. Spread it out. who predicted last year now one wall street person on there not one had Coronavirus in their annual reports. And yes, in their predictions for the year. And yes, it was already known by the time those predictions were made. It was not, it was already through China. Right? So what’s going to happen this year now with this election, there are also so many different scenarios or there are so what you have to do is you have to create a simple strategy. Stay liquid where you need to be liquid that real estate people can really understand that high net worth people don’t understand that you need to be able to get $1 when you need $1 without liquidating an asset that you feel is valued at $1 at 50 cents, you know, I’m saying so you have to have liquidity. facilities, hire network people, they might be lines of credit, they might be asset back loans. Or it might be money in a bank. Second, you need to have money that’s going to grow for the future if you want to grow and if you don’t want to grow, and I’m like, What are you doing? You’re letting somebody else grow it. So why do you love the bank so much? You want them to use your money? They give you nothing? Do they lend it out of five? Where’s your return? Right? So I am biased towards people sort of growing their wealth, I think it’s like riding a bicycle, you can’t stand still on a bicycle, you got to go forward, right? If you certainly don’t want to go backward. And so I think you know, that’s it, keep it simple. If you keep it simple, use stuff that’s easy to understand. You understand your investments, like the strategies you use are completely understandable. They’re understandable, they’re transparent, you know what’s going on? And then you just keep an eye on the dollars, right? Who’s getting paid for what and what are they doing to earn it and there you go. And you know, that nothing’s good, too good to be true. And finally, the last thing I’ll say, and this is everybody doesn’t believe in magic. If government stimulus is so great, we’d be speaking Russian or Spanish right now. Right? The reason why they went from Cuba, the United States, and the United States to Cuba.
Michael:
Right? Okay, dollar chasing goods gonna give me a facial, you gotta keep it simple. The second thing is don’t fall for it. Like, you know, something likes out there. Right now, there’s stuff that’s really high-priced. Some stuff that’s really high priced are very good businesses, but they might not be worth that price. So if you invest in them at a high price, you may not have returned for a while, but the business might stay solvent. And there’s other stuff out there. That’s Akin, in my opinion, to the Dutch tulip mania. And if you don’t know what the Dutch tulip mania is, you really should look it up. And you can see how speculative accesses can really bubble up. There’s a great book by John Kenneth Galbraith called Crash excesses and other manias. And it’s he wrote in the 50s and has always been in print. Because every 10 years, there’s another speculative bubble that makes it a popular book. It’s very well written. And if you haven’t read it, you should read it. It’s love. It’s a lovely book with a lot of truth in it. And then the last thing is, is Don’t fall for scams. See what happens is we know that people in the people get scammed by financial scammers, we’ve got them on our telephones, they call up the IRS, it’s terrible to steal our money, that happen to wealthy people, too. We don’t hear about it, because they’re embarrassed and they absorb the loss. But the losses are a lot bigger for wealthy people. They just simply absorb the losses. Because we tend to think and Galbraith is good at this. You know, in America, if you’re good at something, you make money. Okay? You tend to. And so then we tend since senses nominate money, we tend to think people with money are smart. Now, they might just be good at hitting a baseball, they might just be good at this. There’s no reason to think that they’re generally smarter than middle-class people. Right? They’ve just focused and done well so just be very, very careful in investments. One thing I call my genius attacks. You don’t want genius attacks, genius attacks were a financial crisis. Everybody thought Oh, no, all real Yeah, all assets couldn’t decline at the same time levered up there won’t be a problem. Yeah, no problem.
Cutting through the BS to put you back in charge of your wealth: “Owning a home is a keystone of wealth – both financial affluence and emotional security.” – Suze Orman
Brett:
Beautiful Michael that’s so so much there and there’s so much to unpack but one of the things I want to focus on which I think is really key is the liquidity aspect and also the diversification and then keeping it simple and not overpaying for something that is not providing the value right and, and that’s something that we pride ourselves on with the deferred sales trust we say hey, we’re gonna bring tons of value by deferring all kinds of tax and we just closed the deal south of Santa Cruz, which is about an hour and a half two hours from Davis UC Davis and for those who don’t know.
Michael:
I went to go to UC Santa Cruz.
Brett:
Okay, you did see Santa Cruz.
Michael:
For only three years, that’s why I know Marxism.
Brett:
Got it? Well said, Yeah, so this particular asset, she’s in her 70s and it’s owned it for 25 years-ish. And it’s worth about $900,000. It’s an Airbnb rental. A beach house right used to be like a family house, how to beat you know, rental, but to the point where it’s so highly appreciated $7.9 million, it’s what is worse, right? And then Airbnb is going on. And you have Gavin Newsom with some rent control stuff or, or eviction control stuff and all kinds of, you know, craziness going on this last year, she’s fine, like, I’m done. I’m not gonna own this anymore. I don’t want to rent it anymore. I’m ready to retire. But from the toilets, trashing liability at the same time, I don’t want to have to pay massive tax. And so for the first time, she used the deferred sales trust. It was brand new to her use of the 1031 exchange. Her son actually is in the financial, you know, kind of securities world. So very sophisticated, very smart. He had never heard of it. Very, very skeptical, though. But we taught him to keep it as simple as we can. Right. And now they closed it but it’s transformational for the family. They don’t have to 1031 they don’t have to overpay for the property. They don’t have to be in debt. And they can have liquidity. The funds are all liquid right now. So, so many aspects to that. And I’m curious from your perspective, Mike, maybe you’re hearing about it for the first time, I know we’re meeting for the first time. Sure. When you what, what are your thoughts on things like a deferred sales trust? Are things that are new? How do you get them? To find out if it passes the BS Tests? And if it’s actually a good product for potential clients?
Michael:
Well, I think it is that you got to vet it. Okay. So you know, the great thing, when the internet sort of Ruins now, because it used to be like you’d Google and whatever the best stuff came up top. Now, when you Google it, whoever’s paying the most money comes up top. So your user role used to be the first page was good. Now, you’ve pretty much got to dig to your 10th page to find anything good. But you start there. And then what you do is you have a network of good high-quality tax in the state people that you would, you would go through, right, and you would talk to them and say, Have you heard about this? What are the pros? What are the cons that haven’t been adjudicated yet? Right? So it has the IRS come at it? Has the IRS come at it? If they came at it? What happened? And when? And then you always look, and I think that’s for personals all the time, what’s the worst thing that can happen? what’s expected? what’s likely? What do you call a win? What do you call success? What’s the worst thing that could happen? And could you live with it? And then, you know, what are alternatives? And so if you look at all that factor, what you know, in life is that nothing’s perfect. There’s no such thing as a low-maintenance spouse. You know, I wasn’t sexist, Hello, my name is spouse, okay? There are no unicorns out there. So you’re always given to get something. So again, with the BS detector is if it’s, if it seems like you’re not giving something, that’s when you need to be worried. So that’s how we vet it out. And, you know, stuff can work fantastic for people like that, like, taxes. It’s not what you earn, it’s what you keep. And as we move in these environments, you know, I was on another show, and a guy asked me what I do with texts. Well, one of the things I said is, believe it or not, I invest about a good third of my money into this stuff called variable universal life, which you have to be a registered representative to do. It’s a security product. And it keeps taxes away from my investments. And I can go in and out it’s liquid, I just bought cash for my girl a house, cash for my girlfriend, she’s, you know, flipping it, I got a very talented creative, she did the art behind me, girlfriend, I said maybe she flipped the house. She rehabbed a rental house of mine and got it sold. I said I’ll give you some money, do some more. So there’s value in that liquidity. However, that’s not that simple. And so I told the same guy that I tend not to do it with clients. So why is it because clients can always look at life insurance as a bill, and nobody wants to pay a bill. So I understand it. So I can use it. But I know from experience it worked. Works less well. Overtime on that. So anyway, yeah, I think that’s how we get it and you got you to know, there’s nothing that’s perfect. There’s nothing that’s for but what I like to say too if you want off-label uses the advantage of a financial planner, someone like me, who’s out there, you know, you want your let’s go back to construction. Here a lot. Oh, you just want the only people you know, you look good on paper. You need your builder to know what’s on a shelf at Home Depot. Right? And when you’re on the job, you need to build it and know how to get it done. Get it done. Right? And what the inspectors are gonna say yes to, and not what some textbooks said. They’re gonna say yes when they come out there. They’re like, You’re, you’re redoing it. So that makes sense. And it’s the same thing in our world. So there’ll be a lot of little strategies and stuff that you do with people for taxes, and you know, various things first and second workout.
Brett:
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much, Mike. So much wisdom there. And I wrote down notes like crazy, right? First of all, you should have a dream team or have some trusted advisors, you can develop relationships that you can get any new potential thing that’s coming in, right? can’t agree more. Second, you want to vet it. So your initial research, right? Third, you want to find out has it been adjudicated, right? Has the IRS actually tested it? Right? You don’t want the answer to be No, no, the IRS hasn’t even, never been audited by the IRS. That’s not a good sign. Right? You want them to have known and have looked and have vetted it. And then also, you will also add to that to their actual clients. So whoever is bringing you this new thing that you’ve never heard of, you know, sounds amazing for your tax plan, where their actual clients had actually performed the tracker kinda like a doctor, right? If you’re going to get surgery, Mike, and I’m gonna do an ACL surgery at UC Davis though so I had two ACL surgeries done. Yes. Medical Center. Yeah. Another story, right. But when I showed up, I asked the surgeon, Mr. surgeon, “How many of these have you Done. And he said, he said, 1000s. And I said, Okay. And I said, Who have you done it for?” And they said, Well, some of the Sacramento Kings, oh, okay, great. I’ll sign up, right you can do you can operate on my knee. And so I think that’s super important that the person who’s actually doing the legal work has actually faced the IRS with their actual clients, and has not lost the patient on the table. And no one’s gone to jail, right? The patient, you know, so that’s what I love about that first sale stress, real quick plug 1000s of closes now 25-year track record, when I heard about it, 11 years ago, too good to be true. I met Marcus and Millichap sitting. And we thought we knew everything about 1031 exchanges and tax deferral and data. And we’re sitting there going no way this thing works, or it’s legal or going to hold up. But as each I sent referrals and as each deal passed, and as each IRS audit passed, and now there’s over a dozen no change IRS audits, you know, billions under management, it just keeps working, and including the biggest, biggest audit was a $125 million deal in San Diego. And it just keeps working. And yet it’s still, you know, we got to face the legal question, which is a great question to ask. But, but all that being said, You’ve got to make sure that you have confidence in what you have. And then I’ll also have this last part, you said, if it seems like you’re not having to give anything, it’s probably too good to be true. So yeah, there it’s not the perfect thing for everybody. Right? There are some people who, who don’t want the third party, unrelated trustee, they’re meeting this new financial advisor, there used to be managing their own funds, which they can’t do in this scenario, right? There are certain guardrails we have to have in place in order to keep the integrity of this trust in a tax deferral way. So I think that’s a great point. It’s actually a good thing. If you’re feeling like you’re having to, you know, there’s some friction you’re having to give a little bit. That’s good because if they gave you everything, it’s probably too good to be true. Is that a fair summary, Mike?
Michael:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Right. Absolutely. I don’t want to add something, Brett, you know, I was talking to a client recently, something that I didn’t have expertise in. And it was gonna be illegal, it touched on a legal issue. I knew there was no criminality there. But it might not look so good, right? It was somebody who actually saved the older generation, somebody who today is 90, who put a couple of dollars in cash. And so how do you get the cashback in the banking system and the bills roll? So there’s no illegal activity? And it was in a state it was. And so I said, Look, you need to go to an attorney in your state. And we went and we looked on the web, and we know, we got the elder law attorneys, and I said it people were paying to be on the site. So it doesn’t mean they’re good or not. But it’s a good place to start because at least they’re raising their hand as elder law attorneys. And so well, how will I know if they’re good? I said, Well, they should be able to explain it to you. What happens, how it goes on, right? Like they’ve done it before. And they know what the issues are and the pros and the cons. So I said, for example, if you asked me what’s going to happen, I take my IRA, you’re going to get it, we’re going to withhold the tax goes right there, you get the money, right in your account, at in January, you’re going to get a 1099 R, here’s what’s going to be on the line. Like we’ve done this a few times, we know what’s going to happen. If you don’t report it two years later, you’re going to get a deficiency notice you’re going to be scared when you’re scared to call us. We’ll say no, don’t worry, that’s typically on cap capital gains, issues that you’re like, on a sale of a stock or something. We’ll tell them what the basis is, oh, you know, we know that. And so when you’re dealing with them, you should have that path, that beginning to the end, here’s what’s likely to happen. Here’s what it looks like, here’s what it smells like, here’s how you’re gonna feel when they say this, and then you can have a lot of confidence. You know, you know, the thing is, in our advisory world, having client confidentiality is very important. So when people call up and they say, Well, I want to throw it through your clients, technically not allowed to. So you know, that’s an issue where you can’t just necessarily talk to people, because of the rules under the SEC for like that, that I operate. Under. I mean, those are interpreted differently by different people. But that’s a strict interpretation of it. So yeah, don’t be scared of new things.
Brett:
Yeah, exactly. Just go through the vetting process and be early we like to say be early, right. Because sometimes, if it’s if I find that the if the transaction is closing too quickly, and they’re not they hadn’t pre-planned that, even though intellectually they think it works emotionally, it’s hard for them to be like, oh, millions of dollars into this new tax deferral strategy or these new advisors. And so we’re like sometimes it’s too hard to overcome that emotional over you know a thing so if we can be there early, the better. Okay, great. Thank you so much for that. I love that and let’s dive into the lightning round, Are you ready?
Michael:
Alright, let’s go.
Brett:
Okay, learn knowing what you know. Now if you can go back to your 25-year-old self Mike, what’s the one Golden Nugget that you would make sure that you would do or not?
Michael:
You know, I didn’t save the ambassador. Right? What I actually do my only financial regret and it’s about 25 is not buying a condo in DC. So I would have bought a condo in DC. My last time I divorced, but I still own it.
Brett:
Excellent. What’s the one book you recommend? It has given the most in the past year.
Michael:
Easy. Tom Sowell. Conflict of Visions Conflict Divisions by Tom Sowell is happy, the smartest person I’ve ever had lunch with who didn’t talk to me, but a brilliant man, he’s in his 90s. And that is a brilliant, brilliant book. Excellent. And it’s easily accessible. It’s only a couple of 100 pages available on Amazon, go get it.
Brett:
Excellent. Let’s see. So the best investment you’ve ever made?
Michael:
The best investment I’ve ever made. I’d say education but you learn it on the street, you know, the stocks, I go, do you know, diversified mutual funds and ETFs. So all so I don’t know, I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what I think of working hard. I think it’s a work ethic. I gotta tell you, I owe everything to work ethic. And my and reading about a book a week, I love to consume material. You know, I’ll tell you my best investment ever made. It was sitting at the kitchen table in my San Francisco apartment when I went to work for a think tank. And it dawned on me that I didn’t go to English class. And I didn’t know grammar, because I would write stuff and then give it to a girl to fix before we turned it into the teacher, the professor. So I actually went back, I got all the grammar books. And I invested in my own time to learn the English language. And learning that allowed me to become a very good communicator. And hopefully, I’m indicating that today. And when you become a communicator, you’re able to think well, and you’re able to convey your ideas. So my best investment ever made? Were you taking the time on my own time, nobody else’s time to learn the English language and learn how to communicate. That was my best investment.
Brett:
Beautiful get back to school people. What’s the one thing that you’re most curious about for 2021?
Michael:
I’m most curious about the general idea that seems to be floating around out there. That investment community is a worse place, that government stimulus is somehow bringing prosperity. And that government stimulus by handing out small amounts of money to a lot of people that don’t need it. And ignoring the large amount of money that the few people in pain. Do you need that, that’s somehow going to create a great economy. And I’m not talking about a sugar high over the next six months. I’m old enough to remember that 70s. And so I remember stagflation. And that’s what I’m curious about, at what point do we say no, and, and actually target our medic medicine. So that’s what I’m most curious about for the next 12 months, we’ll see.
Brett:
I am too. I am too, right. Hong Kong can eat cotton candy and, and sugary coke and not have the effects on the health of our economy. So amazing, Mike. Last question. And this will kind of just encapsulate hopefully, our conversation a little bit more about you, but also help us to get a sense of how you’ve been able to succeed in your life and stay centered. And this is the question, after all your success, becoming a certified financial planner, right? Working in growing up in welding and going to UC Davis, Santa Cruz, Connecticut now, all of that, how do you stay centered in your values, Mike? And how do you stay encouraged to reach for new goals?
Michael:
Well, I love to read and I love to learn. And as you know, people say well, how do you get so much done. So this year, I got a book publisher on my second book almost done, actually got my truck license back, and went back and got my CDL. I like driving trucks. So I got that done. I got two kids, one special needs child. And I say center. Basically, I’m being really mindful and focused on what I’m doing when I’m doing it with a smile on my face. And I’d also like all of it, but I like most of it. Second, what I spend zero time on is what a lot of people spend a lot of time on. I don’t particularly enjoy TV, so I don’t watch TV at all. I don’t follow the news, very close, like DC politics. It’s just designed to agitate me and I have no control over it. So we don’t spend a lot of time on that. And my dad says I’m a dysfunctional male. I’ll watch almost no sports, don’t worry about sports. So I’ll turn it in on Sunday. If I’m right in front of the TV, I understand it. But it’s not something I voraciously do so that’s the way I sort of tried to stay centered, really being mindful, having a great time doing what I’m doing when I’m doing it, and not living in regret. So a lot of people in that work that we share at home when they’re at home and they’re worried about work. I don’t worry about it. I do what I do when I do it. And the final thing is I fished 40 times this summer. 40 times my coat fantana on air by the way didn’t die and, and went fishing 40 times lay in bed.
Brett:
That’s amazing, Mike. Well, I want to thank you for sharing so much with us in a short period of time, a bit about your story, so much wisdom, I would encourage you to keep using the gifts that you’ve been given to be a blessing to others. And for our listeners who want to get in touch with you, Mike, what’s the best place for them to find you?
Michael:
Go right on my book website simpleandbig.com so it’s just simpleandbig.com you can send the email off of that. That’s probably the best way to do it. Otherwise, email is mlynch@barnumfg.com. So you can get me either one of those places and we’re happy to help in any way can I do work nationally?
Brett:
Beautiful Mike wants to thank you for being on the show. And that wraps up another Capital gains tax solutions podcast. And also want to thank our listeners and our viewers on YouTube and Facebook for watching another and listening to another episode of the Capital gains tax which is a podcast. As always, we believe most high net worth individuals and those who help them they struggle with clarifying their capital gains tax deferral options not having a clear plan is the enemy, and using a proven tax deferral strategy such as the deferred sales trust to exit your business or real estate or other highly appreciated assets by the way it works for stocks which for cryptocurrency, it works for collectibles artwork, we’d love the opportunity to show you how to do that and you can go to capital gains tax solutions.com to learn more about that. And, and also if you’re a business professional, you want to learn how to use these deferred sales trusts to add value to your clients and help them go to expert tax acres calm to learn about that. We appreciate everybody please rate review, subscribe, and hope to talk and see you real soon. Bye now.
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About Michael Lynch
Michael is a Financial Planner at Barnum Financial Group. He develops customized planning strategies for individuals, families, and business owners that enable them to build wealth, pay lower taxes, and protect the people who depend on them for support.
He is an adjunct professor at Fairfield University and he teaches consumer-oriented financial planning courses to employees of corporations, government and nonprofit organizations, and school districts in Connecticut. His writings appear in both local and national publications. Mike Lynch is a member of Ed Slott’s Master Elite IRA Advisor Group. Michael is a Financial Planner for people with Special Needs. As the father of a child with special needs, Michael is intimately familiar with the emotional, educational, and financial issues that face special needs families.
Michael lives in Stratford, Connecticut with his daughter, Micaela Anne, and son Domenic. His hobbies include writing, running, reading, and working on his house.
