A lot of you guys know this, but I'm obsessed with an early retirement. Not because of this idea

that you're technically retired early on paper, but I want you to do more of what you want to do with your time. That's what it's really all about. It's very rare that people look back and go, Ari, I'm so glad my average rate of turn over my whole life was 8.32649%. No one says that. They go, yep, I was able to retire early and spend more time with family.

Or, yep, that job, that was not healthy for me.

I was able to retire early and spend more time with family or yep that job that was not healthy for me i was not taking care of my health in that role i switched to something and yep it doesn't pay the same but wow my happier and that's what financial planning in my eyes is really all about it's not about dying with the most amount of money it's about getting the most out of that money money. And today, I'm talking about one of the ways to do that, which is please don't pay more in taxes than you need to. I am recording this episode right after I just had a conversation with a client of mine. And they said, Ari, just so you're aware, I know you mentioned this in a previous episode, because a lot of my clients listen to my podcast. They say, Ari, I hired you because of the tax planning.

That was not happening with my other advisor. And I know that that can make a big difference to the bottom line. I go, that's correct. Is that why you still pay me? They go, no, Ari, I pay you because I don't want to have to do it. I feel like I know a good amount, but I also feel like I know enough to be dangerous.

And I want to be with someone for the rest of my life.

I said, great.

I love working with you. But then I thought about it more and I went, I know I've done a lot of episodes talking about tax planning and conversions and health care subsidies and all these things, but I want to simplify it and give you a framework about how to maximize tax opportunities. If you want to retire early, quite simply, not because all of you are going to do exactly what I'm about to say, but a lot of you do want to make sure you don't pay more in taxes. And you're going, okay, already, even if I'm not going to absolutely follow everything you're about to say, I want to know, like, what would I have to do if I wanted to have a quote-unquote perfect early retirement where I don't pay more in taxes than I need to? So I'm going to give you that framework today. And like I said, it was sparked from a conversation I just had with a client. And if you all want to hear more about what it's like working with me when people talk about my tax planning, just go to

Google and look up root financial partners and you will see what people have said about working

with me because to me tax planning, yes, I'm obsessed with this stuff because if we can use

numbers to live a better life, that's what it's all for. In addition to that, today's episode

was also prompted, so not fully by this client conversation, but by an email I received and the email is from Henry, who says, Ari, I don't like paying taxes. I think you can help with that. What do I need to do to pay less taxes? 64 and in good health. So Henry, I like the straightforward aspect to that, and I'm going to walk you through how I do it. Here's the first thing. Okay, number one, do you have cash to live on? Let's pretend, once again, giving you examples and assumptions. It's how we do this well, in my opinion. Let's assume you're 60 years old. You want to do everything in your best power to make sure you don't pay more in taxes than you need to. The first thing is how much do you

have in cash? Is that actual cash, meaning it's cash sitting in a bank account? Is it in a high-yield

savings? Is it really an emergency fund? We're like, all I'm really not going to tap into that

because it's earmarked for if something occurs. Is it all in a brokerage account? Is that

brokerage account invested well? Oh my God. All Ari, you just spit out five questions. Let's go a little slower here. Okay, I get a little carried away, but here's how I want you to think through this. How are you defining the cash that you hold? Some people say, all right, I've got $20,000. And that's just, I'm never touching that no matter what that's my safe assets i said great

are you open to investing anything above 20 000 they go absolutely because 20 000 that's the

minimum that's my quote unquote sleep number that allows me to sleep well anything above that i'm good

to do whatever makes most sense for the plan say wonderful why don't we invest that and get some good

growth on it and they'll go all right i just don't know because, you know, I might need these funds. I go, okay, then let's really define what is that sleep number. So this is an example of me really asking yourself, all of you right now, this is a quick homework assignment. You can do it in two seconds because it's not a scientific answer it's a gut answer what amount at all times

do you want in your portfolio that you're like all right i'm never going to touch and i'll reframe it

because not investment or retirement portfolio of all your financial assets what amount do you want

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