It doesn’t have to be overwhelming for small business owners and the self-employed with side gigs to manage their wealth-building. It takes putting three simple concepts to work with corresponding plans of action to ensure you have what you need for retirement and other personal financial goals.

With careful management, any amount of money you make can work hard and increase in usefulness and the ability to create wealth, stability, and comfort for you and your family for generations. Conversely, even with an incredibly generous income, if not strategically managed, you can end up with cycles of debt, and chronic financial anxiety.

Many well-intentioned people think they are following sound financial advice when in reality, they’ve bought into some dangerous money management myths. This can lead to real financial trouble. If this sounds eerily familiar, then keep calm and read on. Here are some of the most common myths.

Tax time during a pandemic can be complicated for everyone. Landlords adversely affected by the loss of rent payments must understand the tax laws for 2020. There have been some changes and adjustments related to COVID-19 in 2020. We offer some guidance on how those changes interact with existing rental income tax laws.

Debt has become more the rule than the exception in the financial lives of most Americans. The best financial advice anyone can offer, however, is to free yourself from a seemingly endless cycle of debt accumulation and repayment. Debt can hinder other financial goals and get in the way of investing in your future.

An essential part of financial planning begins with ascertaining your resources, debt, and dreams for life, which is the basis for financial goal setting. The best advice for setting long-range financial goals is to start early to have the most time to achieve them. But what about short and mid-range goals?

Even though we don’t like to talk about it, our finances and money management habits are a primary way to ensure economic security - or the lack of it - for ourselves, our families,  and retirement. Let’s look at the time-honored practices of good money management and how to use them effectively to create a bright and comfortable financial future.

Ben Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” Translated: use smart tax planning to help build wealth. In even more straightforward terms, the more you control and limit the amount of taxes you pay, the more resources you’ll have in the future for your life and your family’s. Keeping what you earn to the best of your ability will help you save income, grow investments and ultimately build wealth.

Most business owners are familiar with financial planning. It makes sense to formulate a vision for your personal or company goals and how to achieve them. Financial planning deals with how resources are acquired and leveraged to reach those goals. Strategic tax planning, though different, is just as important. Strategic tax planning should go hand-in-hand with financial planning.

Many people think of spring as a special time for getting your income tax refund. We dream about how we want to spend it all year, on anything from a vacation to splurging on an expensive item we couldn’t usually afford. And why not? It’s an unexpected windfall from the government, right?