Wealth For Life: The Business Owner's 9-Step Guide To Creating Wealth For Family & Life

Client Endorsements

I’ve been a client of Ben and the team at Inspire for five of the biggest ‘rollercoaster’ years I’ve ever had in business. Through starting multiple companies, dealing with COVID impacts, and helping me activate numerous investment decisions, their genuine interest in my overall ‘family group’ accounting and financial welfare has been a key to our success. His trusted network of referral specialists are now also my go-to. This is a must-read book for families setting out to build ‘wealth for life’.

I’ve had the delight of working with Ben and his team over the past four years. I have come to see them as highly trusted partners. When I stepped out of a big corporate and started my own advisory business, Ben and the team were on hand to advise me on the best way to structure and manage my financials. When my father stepped down from managing our family super fund, Inspire respectfully and seamlessly stepped in to support us in the transition and ongoing management of the fund. When I’ve considered different types of ‘wealth for life’ investments, I’ve learned much from Ben and his team, and have valued their knowledge and insights in the decision-making process. I am certainly feeling as though we have the firm foundations, growth strategies, and the right structures to enable and protect our futures, from the 19 year old through to the 94 year old in my family.

One of the best decisions I have ever made in business and life was to attend a workshop run by Inspire. Not only did it open my eyes to what I needed to change within my business, but it armed me with all the tools to do so. Having Ben and the team in my corner is like having a secret weapon; almost an unfair advantage. Ben and the team go above and beyond their role as our accountants and it is thanks to them we have the structure, the vision, and the confidence to create the intergenerational wealth I have always dreamt of for my family. Not only has Ben and the team helped me secure property with an amazing SMSF strategy, they guided me through the COVID period with business grant and eligibility advice. This is as well as helping with the everyday headaches when accounting hasn’t been my forte. Ben and the team are always a call or a text away. I’m extremely lucky to have them in my corner and I encourage everyone to do the same!

Ben has been our accountant and a trusted business adviser for my group of companies for around 8 years. His unwavering commitment, together with his amazing Inspire team, have assisted our business in a broad range of areas, including cash flow, tax, structures and some international tax matters. What makes Ben unique and awesome is his genuine passion for my business success and his ability to advise on generating family wealth. I am excited for the results that readers of Wealth For Life will have. It will give you the potential to achieve more, simply by investing the time to read, absorb and implement the principles Ben shares.

Wealth for Life: The Business Owner’s 9-Step Guide To Creating Wealth For Family & Life © Ben Walker 2022

https://inspire.accountants

https://benwalker.com

The moral rights of Ben Walker to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968.

First published in Australia 2022 by Inspire Accountants Pty Ltd

https://inspire.accountants

ISBN 978-0-6455662-0-8

eBook ISBN 978-0-6455662-2-2

Any opinions expressed in this work are exclusively those of the author and are not necessarily the views held or endorsed by Inspire Accountants Pty Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, photocopying or otherwise, without prior written permission of the author.

Disclaimer

All the information, techniques, skills and concepts contained within this publication are of the nature of general comment only and are not in any way recommended as individual advice. The intent is to offer a variety of information to provide a wider range of choices now and in the future, recognising that we all have widely diverse circumstances and viewpoints. Should any reader choose to make use of the information herein, this is their decision, and the author and publisher(s) do not assume any responsibilities whatsoever under any conditions or circumstances. The author does not take responsibility for the business, financial, personal or other success, results or fulfilment of the readers’ decision to use this information. It is recommended that the reader obtain their own independent advice.

Dedicated to my beautiful family – Stevie, Rose, Ezra & Poppy.

Always remember: we all have the power to create a life (and business) that gives us the ability to put our family first.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What This Book Will Share

How To Get The Most Out Of The Book

The Difference Between Business Wealth & Family Wealth

The Mindset of Creating Wealth

Mental glass ceilings

Self-Worth & Net Worth

Download Wealth for Life Book Resources

PART 1: Foundations

Step 1: Vision

Create Your Bucket List

Exercise: Create Your Bucket List

Clear Communication (Regular Meetings)

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Exercise: Communication Rhythms

Conclusion

Step 2: Living Within Your Means

Increase Your Income

Decrease Your Expenses

Exercise: Trim The Fat

Using An Automated Household Budget

Exercise: Create Your Automated Budget

Step 3: Financial Freedom

Calculating Financial Freedom

Traffic Lights with Wealth

Exercise: Calculate Your Magic Numbers

What Are Your Current Net Investable Assets?

Bonus

Part Summary

Implementation Checklist

PART 2: Structures

Step 4: Backup Plan (Insurances)

Life Insurance (Death Insurance)

Tips About Life Insurance

TPD (Total & Permanent Disability)

Tips About TPD

Income Protection

Tips About Income Protection

Trauma/Critical Illness

Tips About Trauma/Critical Illness Insurance

Overall Insurance Things To Keep In Mind

Stepped or level premiums

Waiting periods before you can claim

The application process

Challenges getting cover

Step 5: Leave Your Legacy (Estate Plan)

An Estate Plan Is More Than Just A Will

Different Documents For Different Assets

Key Documents For Estate Planning

Your Will

Who’s your executor?

Who are your Beneficiaries?

Testamentary Trusts

Memo of Directions (Letter of Wishes)

Enduring Power of Attorney

Dealing With Assets In The Following Entities

Companies

Trusts

Superannuation

Life Insurance

Other Things To Consider

Business Succession Planning

Estate Planning Is Not Set & Forget

Estate Planning Exercise: 1 Page Estate Plan

Step 6: Long Term Wealth (SMSF)

Engagement With Your Super

The difference between SMSF vs. Corporate Super Funds

Comparing the costs

How much do you need in super to set one up?

The ‘SM’ in ‘SMSF’

Family Fund

Death

Disability

Divorce

Control Tax

Investment Strategy

Leverage

Insurance

Incapacity Planning

Estate Planning

Some Cool Things You Can Do With Your SMSF

Buy commercial or residential property

Become your own bank

Invest in private companies or trusts

Develop property

SMSF Success Stories

SMSF Success Story 1: The Vet from the Bush

SMSF Success Story 2: $300,000 Tax-Free Gain

SMSF Success Story 3: IT Business From Melbourne

SMSF Final Words

Part Summary

Implementation Checklist

PART 3: Growth

Step 7: Wise Investment Decisions

Four Types of Investments

What I’ve Seen Work With Investing

The Power of Compound Returns

Money Makes Money

Diversification

Dollar Cost Averaging

What Doesn’t Work When It Comes To Investing

Not taking action

Timing the market

Picking winners

Expecting returns too early

Conclusion

Step 8: Your Property Portfolio

Advantages Of Having Property In Your Portfolio

What I Look For In My Own Property Strategy

Running The Numbers On An Investment Property

Buying The Property Through SMSF

Conclusion

Step 9: Leveraging Debt

Is Debt A Dirty Word?

Good Debt Vs. Bad Debt

Other Debt Lingo

Fixed VS Variable Rate

Principal and Interest VS Interest Only

Offset Account

LVR

LMI

How To Pay Off Your Home In A Quarter Of The Time

The Right Property

The Right Loan Structure

The Right Ownership

The Right Spending Set-Up

An example of Debt Recycling in action

Closing Comments On Leveraging Debt: Work With A Broker

Part Summary

Implementation Checklist

Conclusion

Do you want to learn more about my accounting firm, Inspire?

Acknowledgements

About The Author

Other Books By Ben

Introduction

Most business owners pour their heart into their business. They provide immense value to the community and business world, but they often don’t get rewarded well until they work the kinks out of their business, which can take years, decades, or a lifetime to master. The result is that a lot of business owners struggle financially and take huge financial risks.

I do not want to see business owners struggle to get by as the norm. Or be better off in a job. Or get to the end of their business journey and have taken very little profit off the table to enjoy life along the way and grow their family wealth. If you follow the guidance in this book, it will change the trajectory you and your family are on, and hopefully, you’ll end up in a place that you never even dreamt of!

I wrote this book primarily because I had so many challenges throughout my own wealth creation journey and I want to help other business owners avoid them, where possible. The problem was that I was in the first few years of running my business. Additionally, I did it without any personal financial backing and quickly got into a serious amount of debt after a few less-than-ideal business decisions.

For so many years, wealth creation seemed off the cards. I was focused on putting food on the table, paying the next BAS, making the next payroll date, and managing that huge debt. Over the years, my focus was to increase the cash generated from my business, pay down some debt, and then worry about building wealth. What I wanted to make sure of was that I didn’t work the next few decades of my life, take on big risks, work big hours, and not have much to show for it at the end.

Business is hard enough, and there are not many people who will teach and show you how to create wealth, but I believe it is so important to build wealth outside of your own business. It can also be extremely confusing if you are new to investing and wealth creation concepts and have no idea who to trust.

There are a number of mistakes I have also seen myself or other clients make in the journey: things like trying to time the market, being too afraid to invest, overthinking it, overcomplicating it, being scammed, investing but expecting quick results, and plenty more. And the truth is there’s no one way to do it. You’ll probably make mistakes and lose money sometimes and, if you learn from them, you’ll make some good decisions and end up being better off for it.

I wrote this book to share my experiences, but also to help you with different problems that I’ve faced personally around growing wealth, including how the concepts in this book can have a huge impact on your relationship with your spouse and the life you live with your family. For me, a pretty low point in life, and what caused me to make some change in my and my wife’s wealth creation journey, was when my wife and I were on our honeymoon.

I was about two years into starting my accounting firm called Inspire, and my wife Stevie was in the final year of her veterinary science degree which consisted of full-time (unpaid) practical work for most