Financial Independence to Retire Early
The Financial Independence to Retire Early (F.I.R.E.) is a movement aimed at educating Irish Business Owners and Company Directors on how they can potentially avail of various reliefs at the right time in their careers to expedite their capability to retire early, should they so choose or at least reach the work optional stage of their career sooner than they anticipated.
F.I.R.E. can be achieved through sequential planning and opening your mindset to a world of opportunities to stop the traditional way of thinking around retirement planning.
F.I.R.E. is not for thrifty individuals.
To help our clients achieve F.I.R.E., we reverse engineer the amount you need through all structures, income flows and tax controls. All too often, the perception held by SME Business Owners in Ireland is that they HAVE to work until they are at least 65 and then draw down on their pension and relax for the rest of their days. We call this RETIREMENTALITY.
However, the reality is you can actually retire a lot earlier – Once you have enough money and wealth developed to do so. The key to accelerating F.I.R.E is to be educated on how to achieve this as soon as possible. Increasing the enterprise value of your business is the critical step in this journey. Walfrid Private look at the existing situation of our clients. We review, rework and restructure accordingly to help Business Owners put the positive numbers on their business and personal balance sheets.
Some of the reasons that we have discovered that Business Owners have not ignited their F.I.R.E. yet include;
- Inability to define wealth
- Unachievable goals
- No focus
- Operating in Industries with low margin and / or low volume
- Wealth becomes a moving target
- Fixed Mindset
- Take no responsibility
- No Cashflow modelling is done
- Inertia
However, when we open their eyes to the possibilities, we realise that business owners do want to create their own F.I.R.E.
To do this, we assist them to;
- Clarify what wealth is
- Clarify what legacy looks like and what actions are needed to achieve this
- Clarify what “Financial Independence” is to them
- Decipher “How Much is Enough”
- Learn “Their Number”
- Discover how they can create multiple flows of income.
In order for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners to avail of their F.I.R.E., they need to learn more about cash flow and its importance. Cashflow is vital as it indicates the viability of a business (as opposed to Revenue, which indicates the effectiveness of the company’s sales and marketing activities).
“Cash is not King, Cashflow Is King”
There are different types of cashflow and each individual must be aware of each type and what it means for their personal and business monetary independence.
Earned:
Earned Cashflow is earned during the course of working. Taxes paid upoin earned cashflow are between standard and marginal rates. Earned Cashflow is the Paycheques needed to service and pay for necessities.
Passive:
Passive Cashflow is income that requires little to no effort and is constantly being transferred to your own account. This cashflow can be realized through various Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and investments. Asset backed, Government Backed investments, such as Zero Tax Property, are an ideal vehicle to generate passive income as they generate cashflow with no tax payable on the income or on the growth.
Retirement Accounts:
Retirement contracts / pensions are a tax efficient way of saving for the years beyond your working life but there are a number of different structures that must be considered depending on each individual situation. Legislation such as Tax Law, Pension Law, European Union Pension Law or IORPS2 makes the retirement industry unapproachable, unpalatable and untrustworthy for many citizens.
Tax Controlled Environments:
Holding Companies and Special Purpose Vehicles are alternate methods of creating inflows of income and isolating risk. Advice should be sought from a Qualified Financial Advisor or Wealth Manager to ascertain which structure is best for you.