242. Wealth is the Luxury of Choice Not a Number with Kaitlyn Carlson

Do you know how much money you should be saving from your business? Do you know how to create wealth from your business? These are the tougher questions that can enhance your work especially if you're starting to get a handle on your business numbers. This episode will have you think about all the different ways you can start building wealth for your business and have your money work harder for you. Kaitlyn Carlson is the Founder & CEO of Theory Planning Partners, a boutique wealth creation firm for the top female entrepreneurs in the United States. Kaitlyn saw her uncle lose his restaurant. She saw her grandfather have to sell his home. She saw the financial stress in her family and felt responsible as the oldest child to learn and create a better future. She graduated with a major in psychology and took her first job in asset management. “How do they create wealth?” asked Kaitlyn of her clients. “It became very clear to me that in order to create wealth, you need to know the rules of the game, and you need to know how to play the game.” When people start their business, Kaitlyn says the one thing she wishes business owners do is calculate their financial freedom number.  “Context leads to intention,” says Kaitlyn. “When I was working with average Americans that were getting ready for retirement, the majority of them were not prepared for retirement, and it was because they didn't have this information earlier in time.” She says the wealth creation journey is like ascending and descending a mountain. A lot of business owners will put one foot in front of the other without having any idea of where they are. For emergency funds, Kaitlyn recommends three months’ worth of expenses in cash. Personal emergency funds are similar, anywhere from three to six months of living expenses in a cash reserve. “Wealth is not a specific number; wealth is the luxury of choice.” Kaitlyn says it’s ok not to force yourself to love the numbers. If you don’t love doing the bookkeeping, then become successful enough to hire a bookkeeper and delegate. “Business owners that really start to rise above are the ones that are great delegate and recognize this is always going to be a weakness for me,” says Kaitlyn. “That's where I've really seen the breakaway between, you know, the five figure and then the multi six, seven and eight figure is they're a fantastic delegators.” To start building wealth, you need to secure the recurring profitability of your business. A mistake entrepreneurs might make is when their business has eclipsed their former salary and can cover their living expenses, they’ll enter a period of lifestyle creep. They’re making more money than they’ve ever made before and they’ll just go out and start spending it – neglecting the financial freedom number that needs to be funded. “So we really try to catch people when they get to that point of, okay, now my business is doing really well. I'm starting to make more money than it costs to live my lifestyle. This is where I need to stop and assess what my plan is, what my intention is,” says Kaitlyn. Quit Like A Millionaire: https://amzn.to/490Ny9G  Plan for Profit: https://sarahwalton.com/freedom/  Connect with Kaitlyn Carlson : https://theoryplanning.com/  Other GoG episodes you might want to check out: Are You Protecting Your Assets? https://sarahwalton.com/protecting-your-assets/  Debt Doesn’t Have to Be a Dirty Word https://sarahwalton.com/debt-for-business/  You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton   Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people! (If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tutorial.) #WealthManagement #WealthBuilder #FinancialFreedom #HowMuchToRetire #PersonalFinance #Investing #AskExpert #BusinessCoach #SalesCoach