Summary: The LASER Solution Doug is a big proponent of people taking the time to educate themselves on the different options that exist for pursuing abundant living. There are many different financial vehicles available so it's important to find the ones that are the best fit for you. With that in mind, here is a brief overview of a solution you may find worth exploring as part of an approach to adding to your better financial health. It's based on the three marvels of wealth accumulation. 1. Compound interest. 2. Tax-favored accumulation. 3. Safe positive leverage which is the ability to own and control assets with none of your money tied up or at risk in the asset. Personal financial disasters usually occur when one is highly leveraged with very little liquidity. The principle of leverage isn't bad in and of itself. Actually, it's the very essence of how money works. Safe leverage has created untold amounts of wealth in the world where a win-win is created over and over. When institutions like banks or credit unions borrow OPM, or other people's money, they pay a low interest rate to the people who lend it to them by depositing the money in their institution. They then turn around and loan that money at higher interest rates to earn a net spread. Earning interest is a win for the saver while paying interest to the saver is a win for the bank. This is because they then loan out the very same money at a higher rate. If a bank pays 1, 2 or 3 percent interest on savings accounts, they turn around and loan at 5 or 6 percent or higher. On just one million dollars, they may pay only $10,000 to $20,000 of annual interest. However, they are earning $50,000 or $60,000 or more in interest on the money they loan. As a business owner, would you be willing to hire an employee for $20,000 if that employee made you an extra $60,000? Would you buy a widget machine for $20,000 if the machine made you an extra $60,000? In either case, that would be a 300% return on your employee or equipment cost. The point here is that leverage isn't bad. It's leveraging without liquidity that gets people into trouble. This wisdom is what motivated Doug to help people protect themselves from the negative impact of TIME. This stands for taxes, inflation, market volatility, and economic uncertainty. One accomplishes this protection by maintaining LASER focus. The acronym LASER stands for liquid assets safely earning returns. All of Doug's serious cash that he's earmarked for financially funding his personal bank in perpetuity, must meet the LASER test. The three key elements of a prudent investment include liquidity, which means the ability to access your money with a phone call or an electronic funds transfer without triggering taxes or penalties. You can't do this with an IRA or a 401(k). The second element is safety of principal. This is the ability to preserve your principal and to protect it from loss. Also, any year that you make money, you want to be able to lock in the gain and have it become newly protected principal so you don't lose what you made in previous years due to market downturns. The third element is rate of return. You want to be able to earn a competitive rate of return, tax-free, that historically has beaten inflation because it is linked to the goods and services that inflate. Why Tax-advantaged Savings Matter As an additional benefit, Doug prefers the financial vehicles that meet the LASER test and that also have tax advantages. Fewer taxes equals more cash for you, your family and your retirement. Virtually no one thinks taxes are going down in the future. Some estimates say that taxes may go above 50 percent for many Americans in the future. Our government is addicted to spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security and other government initiatives. Uncle Sam's appetite is only getting bigger. With taxes on the rise,
