2016 a brand new year. I have learned a lot in the past and especially with such rapid growth in the past 3 years. In 2014/2015, I decided to get a financial advisor to asset my situation. It is an important step in any entrepreneur life cycle. You should know when and what to do with your money for the future. I wanted to share this information with you in 2015, when I discussed growth hacking in January of last year.
The problem, I am in an industry that is ever changing.
With the plateau of this industry always shifting, you sometimes do not know where your money is coming from. Offers go down, affiliate networks stop running traffic, Adwords Bans, Facebook improving their algorithm - so many things change that your revenue can just stop.
A financial advisor is suppose to help you leverage your money for the long term and set up proper investments to start in. For example help with taxation, IRAs and 401s. What about new startup plans that you can invest in. Even setting up trust funds to stay clear from taxes. A financial advisor is there to leverage the revenue you are currently bringing in and or have to make it secure for the future.
Finding the right non corporate financial advisor is hard. As entrepreneurs, or as online marketers our revenue is never consistent. So how does one financial analyst analyzes revenue that is consistently shifting? A question I am still trying to answer. With financial advisors telling you the basics from 401k to IRA - it helps and it is definitely useful. You need these guys in your pocket.
Again, problem - I am in an industry that is ever changing.
My mistake in 2015 is getting advice in a volatile industry. It is hard to say where revenue can come in next month. There is no consistency in revenue in our industry. So a insurance policy that is setup to be paid year over year becomes useless if the payment cant be met any longer. Also having an insurance policy for a single person isn't that beneficial only if you have a family as it protect and helps them.
Yes, there are other ways to utilize an insurance policy, but if you can't keep up with a yearly/monthly cost - it doesn't make sense to have. For example I lost 100k in just insurance alone and times got tight, where I needed to withdraw from such program. Yes it benefits me later, but I need revenue now.
For example an insurance policy or death benefit can help save your money as it is being held tax free and can be withdrawn in a number of years, steadily growing tax free. The problem is you have to feed this every month or year, I fed 2 policies close to 100k! Eventually I had to withdraw from the program as revenue started becoming tight and we were going through a business restructure.
Things like this doesn't make sense for a business that is ever changing.
Investments are also something I took in 2015 in other startups and product lines. Not understanding a lot of the offline marketing, I was excited and decided to just jump in. I don't mind losing as long as I learn. I like taking the risk to learn than being hopeful. The problem with such an investment is rushing.
Rushing got me into a situation where I now regret. Investing is key to having a continued healthy lifestyle but also you have to decide how you want to invest, loans, structured deal, etc. I don't regret the decision I made, I just wished I did it with more certainty.
2015, was a full year of learning. 2016 is now applying the skills acquired! Boss up! Bless Up!
