106: Is Building Your Business Making You Broke and Unhealthy?

Behind Their Success: Episode 106

Mike: [00:00:00] I knew I wasn't fine. And so I went down a path where I needed to, you know, I

started going to the doctor.

They wanted to put me on medication and I was like, no, I don't wanna do that. And he's like,

well, in six months if you don't change, I'm gonna have to do it. He said, Mike, I want you to

plan.

Your health, like you would plan your money

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. Today we have on Mike

Milligan. He is the founder of Ideas by Mike and One Oak Financial. He's a certified financial

planner with over two decades of experience guiding entrepreneurs and families to build

purpose driven wealth from lessons learned at his grandmother's dining room table to creating

truly personalized financial plans.

Mike is passionate about helping people connect their money and their values so they can live a

healthier, wealthier, and more impactful life. Mike, I love that. Welcome on Behind Their

Success.

Mike: Well, I'm, I'm glad to be here. you know, I'm, I'm looking forward to, speaking with your,

listeners and having a great conversation with you [00:01:00] today.

Paden: You know, uh, before we hit the record button, we were talking about Mike, uh, living in

Puerto Rico and, and the tax benefits of all that. So I kind of started nerding out on that. We'll,

we'll jump into that a little bit, but Mike. tell me about your story. Like, okay, where, where did

Mike come from?

How did he develop into kind of what he is today and kind of what's, you know, what businesses

are you running now?

Mike: So I, I'm originally from North Carolina. my roots were, you know, and, and still are very

deep in North Carolina. I still have a lot of family there. I like to, I always tell a story where I

began my entrepreneur journey. Um, like it, it was at the dining room table of my grandmother's.

My grandmother's home. She, uh, through necessity had to start a business. Um, not because

she necessarily wanted to. She was a stay at home mom and a, and a wife, but my, but my

grandfather, who owned a construction company, uh, suddenly got cancer and couldn't continue

his, his, uh, [00:02:00] business anymore. And so the, uh, the one thing she really, my granny

knew how to do was she knew how to cook.

And, um, people loved. coming to their house on Sunday afternoons. We had big family dinners

there, but people in general just would stop by. And she always had the gift of cooking and the

hospitality that went a, that went along with it. That, uh, that hospitality. What, what she didn't

realize is that she had to earn money and that money she had to earn, was uh, she was only

gonna get it through cooking.

And so she brought an 11-year-old me with her. To sell collared sandwiches at construction sites

where my grandfather used to work.

Paden: Wow.

Mike: And so we would, uh, come back after selling collared sandwiches and we would count

the money. Uh, I would put it in a spiral bell notebook and, you know, that's how my journey

began.

I saw, uh, you know, I didn't learn these lessons. I was catching everything she. Doing, but I

didn't know what she was doing until I, you know, later went to college. I worked in corporate

[00:03:00] America for a while, and then when I decided to go out and start my own business, I

looked back and I said, I'm, I'm gonna follow some of the, some greatest entrepreneurs out

there.

So I started reading everything about Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and, you know, every great

entrepreneur. And then I thought, well, wait, my granny was an entrepreneur. And so I started

thinking about her story and how she actually built her business. And so I decided to build, uh,

ZGP Financial was the first company that I built and sold.

Then I sold, uh, built championship College planning, also sold that one. Then I then, then I said,

you know, I'm gonna build something that I want to, I never wanna sell. And that's gonna be, uh,

corporate title ideas by Mike. But like, out in the financial markets is known as One Oak

Financial.

Um, one OAK stands for one of a kind. And, um, it's just from a core belief that I believe

everybody's unique. They have a, they have purpose. And, um, and I don't think everybody

should have a [00:04:00] financial plan. That is, uh, catered to what Wall Street or banks or

insurance companies wanna do. I think they should be unique, as unique as they are, so that

they can go live their one of a kind life.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Um, you know, I can tell, um, me and you have a lot of similar

philosophies when it comes to finance and stuff, and just, just even, you know, in your intro

when you're talking about healthier, wealthier, you know, we, we, we talk, we, our tagline is

creating healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs, you know.

Ben Franklin. Right. And, and it is a holistic life, right? Like everything in your life affects

everything. Right? And, and you kind of had a journey right of, of health where you lost over a

hundred pounds, correct?

Mike: I, I did. Right. I was, uh, on that journey of going from the dining room table through

corporate America to my own entrepreneur. There was also a lot of time spent on a baseball

field. I was a pretty good baseball player. I couldn't, I couldn't run, but I could [00:05:00] throw a

baseball and I could hit a baseball.

Uh, so I got to some pretty high levels, uh, beyond into pro ball where I was actually getting paid

to do some, play, some baseball. but after I quit playing baseball, I, quite honestly, I, I probably

was, you know, they would, they, they would probably say I was depressed, like if a medical

Paden: Oh yeah. Well, you

kind of lose your identity,

Mike: Absolutely. And so, uh, for, for 15 years when I was playing baseball, I was 6 3, 200

pounds. Uh, 15 years after I was done playing baseball, I had gained 10 pounds a year. I mean,

do the math, 15 years

Paden: I mean, you know, I mean like how normal that, you know, really is. It's, it's easy to do.

Yeah.

Mike: And so I had gotten up to 350 pounds and I was, uh. Uh, and you know, I had some

people in my life that would say You're fine.

Uh, because I mean, again, I'm six three. It's not like I'm, you know, was a 350 pound. I'm not

like crazy. Big guy anyway. But like, I had some people who would, you know, just say, Hey,

you're [00:06:00] fine. And I just, I knew I wasn't fine. And so I went down a path where I needed

to, um, you know, I started going to the doctor.

They wanted to put me on medication and I was like, no, I don't wanna do that. And he's like,

well, in six months if you don't change, I'm gonna have to do it. And uh, he said, but I want you

to, I want you to, uh, the doctor was one of my clients, so he knew my financial planning

process. He said, Mike, I want you to plan.

Your health, like you would plan your money he said, your financial, your your financial planning

process is amazing. So Plan. And so I did. Right? And so one of the concepts I have is like, uh, I

have this whole belief that you can have, you can have anything you want, but you can't have

everything,

Paden: Yeah.

Mike: So, and it's just, uh, and so what I, what I started thinking is, okay, well you know, 80% of

your health is what you eat. I'm like, okay, well I need to stop eating fast food. I need to stop

eating fried things. I need to stop eating red meat. I need to stop eating pork. And so what I did

is I [00:07:00] limited, uh, I didn't go to Fast food Restaurant for five years. And, uh, that one

change right there, put my intake, my food on a different path. And then I just started working

out. I, I, uh, I started getting steps and then I went to Orange Theory Fitness. I would do that five

or six times a week. Now I'm a little more on a maintenance level where I'm like two or two to

four times a week.

But I went from 350 pounds to 235 pounds, and I've been able to kind of maintain my health.

Uh, I, my cholesterol is beyond crazy. Good blood pressure is great, but it's, uh, it's, you know, I,

I think a lot of people try to overcomplicate like their health journey. and they'll, depend, I mean,

just like people depend on financial companies to do the right thing for 'em.

They'll depend on medicine to do the right thing for 'em, but the, but the remedies are the same,

right? Uh, take this investment product that we only recommend medicine, take this pill, and

then, but [00:08:00] both of those, whether you take an investment portfolio or medicine, they

cause other problems along the way.

Paden: Yeah. It's like a one size fits all solution, right?

Mike: E. Exactly. That's why we're, that's why we're one of a kind, right? Because we don't

wanna be one size fits all. We want people, and listen there, there's a lot of people who need to

follow a one size fits all model because, you know, because of fears or anxiety or you know,

mistrust or they've had a bad relationship before and you need to do that, right?

But if you can clear off that and build vision for your yourself. If you can build a vision for your life

and what you wanna live, then you can build a, one of a side, you know, a one of a kind financial

plan, a one of a kind tax strategy, a one of a kind, uh, health journey, right? And when you do

that, it just, uh, it opens up your life to be something a whole lot more than what just the status

quo is.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. And it's amazing, you know, while, while my, you know, my health journey

hasn't [00:09:00] been near as dramatic as, you know, yours has, Mike, I, I, I fell in love with it

five plus years ago and really fell in love with, you know, going to the gym and working out and

developing myself and, and. Setting new goals constantly and, and, and continue to develop

myself.

And like the amazing thing is, it's like, the reason I love that so much is because it's such like a

microcosm of life in general of like, Hey, with time and energy, and you put it into something and

you practice it. You will get better. And, and like, as long as you have that belief, like, you know,

Tom Ballou, who does a, a impact theory, a podcast, he always talks about like, the only belief

that matters is that if, if you believe that you can put time and energy into something and get

better at it.

That's really the only belief that matters. But if you don't have that belief, like you, you have this

fixed mindset and everything's fixed and stuck and, and you can't do anything. But like, I think

it's really important to point out. You started with like one thing, right? You're like, your, your first

line, you, your first standard you drew was like, okay, I don't eat fast food, right?

Mike: Mm.[00:10:00]

Paden: And, and, and then you just let that thing compound out and, and not only did you let the

fast food thing compound out, then you're like, oh. Once you take that first step, you start feeling

a little bit better. The fast food's not eating it, then you're like, oh. What else can I add to this?

Right? And then you keep adding these little tweaks as you go along the way, and people don't

realize how far and how fast they can get there if they just start on the journey.

Mike: Well, they, everybody wants like a, a. Like a simple solution, a quick pill or a quick fix, you

know, and anything worth having in life requires compounding, right? It's, you know,

compounding decisions daily. It, it just, it just requires a, uh, just a little changes. It's not

restrictive by the way, because, you know, you know how much, like when I changed from going

to fast food, like how the quality of my life changed?

I went from this, uh, all of a sudden what I realized is I was just, you know, I was hungry. So I

would take 15 minutes and I would stop at whatever [00:11:00] restaurant, grab food and go,

and I was always rushing. Now all of a sudden I was, you know, I got one of those meal services

that delivered the food to my house, and now I had to, you know, it took take 45 minutes to cook

a meal, right?

But then I could also, it would lower my stress. And so like it, um. It, it, there were just, when you

make a, when you make a small change like that, you know, I'm gonna, it's not limiting. It can

actually be really freeing. And that's the, that, that's the point that everybody, I hope hears is if

you just make one change from a health standpoint and you know, for some people it's going to

be, you know, getting out and walking 10,000 steps.

You know how long it takes you to walk 10,000 steps in a day, it's hours. Right. You know, it's

not, it's that, that, that's not a commitment that takes 15 minutes. But so, you know, maybe it's a

commitment to, you know, instead of going to 10, I'm gonna walk a thousand more today. Now

that's like 15, 20 minutes.

Right. I'm gonna, but you know, for others it's gonna be like, [00:12:00] um, you know, it's trendy

right now to give up alcohol,

Paden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mike: And that's, we're seeing that all over Instagram and a lot of entrepreneurs especially are

given up alcohol because they

Paden: I'm down that rabbit hole myself right now.

Mike: right, right. I mean, they, we, we've even made famous think like things like dry January.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Mike: Where we're not gonna drink in January. those kind of peaks and valleys where, you

know, I'm not gonna drink for January and then all of a sudden February comes around and the

Super Bowl happens and you get hammered for 27 outta 28 days. I mean, that's not really

healthy,

Paden: Yeah, sure.

Mike: right? Um, it's really more about sustainable goals in life.

Than it is. I mean, it's like with anything with your health or your money, you know, anything that,

you know, like, yes, people get wealthy buying crypto over 20 days using an algorithm. Right?

but those are only the stories we hear. The stories we don't hear are the people that put in

25,000 and now they got

Paden: 10 million other people that got the actual results.

Mike: That's

exactly right.

Paden: it's wild. Yeah. You [00:13:00] know, you know, taking those steps on the health journey

and, and those little tweaks is that, I mean, as you take those steps, the next steps become

easier. And I think it's, you know, people are always looking for a quick solution, right?

And, and it's not a quick solution, but there are simple solutions, right? Like, like you say, we, we

overcomplicate it. Um, and it's really just a couple basic things that'll get you. You know, 90% of

the way of where you want to go is just like burn a little bit more calories. Eat a little less

calories. And yes, disclaimer, that doesn't fix every problem.

I understand that. But that'll get you a long ways down that road and you can figure out those

other problems along the way. So kind of my point.

Mike: That's right. What do you do for working out? No.

Paden: I've been in weightlifting for probably the last five years where I consistently lift weights,

you know, almo, almost like bodybuilding type, um, type type workouts. I'm kind of in the middle

of 75 hard right now, which is, you know, it is what it is, and that, that, the reason I like 75 hard

[00:14:00] is not really even the physical challenges because it's, it's not.

I don't really have a problem. Like I've, I've worked out so long now that I enjoy it. So like, going

to workout is not like a problem for me. but the mental lock in that 75 hard forces me to do,

right? Like of I gotta, I gotta do all these tasks and I have to do them every day and you cannot

mess them up.

Like it just locks me in. It's like, it's like I said, you start drawing, you make a decision. Like you,

if you make a decision that I'm not gonna drink alcohol anymore, like it, it frees up your mind

like. drawing standards and lines are actually, can be very freeing because your mind is not

thinking about that anymore, right?

It's like, you know, young men, you know, they spend most of their time like chasing girls and

whatever, but like, you know, as soon as they get married and if they lock in and commit to that,

how much of their time is freed up now because, you know, they're not. I mean, it's just another

example of that, how decisions and structure actually force you to focus in on what you want.

So if you can smartly draw those lines. It'll focus you.

Mike: Uh, [00:15:00] there's, there's no doubt. I mean, that's a, I mean, we could stop the

podcast right now and just say, man, we've, we've given so much value on this one, but I mean,

hey, congratulations for doing 75 hard, by the way, that is a,

Paden: I'm only 25 days in,

Mike: you're a third of the way there, which is great. He, they actually, he calls that Andy calls

that a mental toughness

Paden: yeah, that's why it's not physical really.

Mike: No, it's, it's not, it's doing something every day and you've, and you've done it for 25 days,

so I mean, you, you're locked in. It's just, I mean, it's just a matter of now, you know, it's time

management not getting derailed one day, because I mean, there's only 24 hours a day and it

takes you probably about two or three hours to do everything in that challenge.

Just don't get derailed and you're gonna, you're gonna finish this thing strong.

Paden: for me, I want to use this to become like, okay, this is more my default.

Um, lifestyle, like, you know, I wanna learn and take some of these tasks to make it like my, my

daily routine. You know, I'm probably not gonna do everything [00:16:00] all the time, obviously,

but like, make more of those things, my default. Um, and, and, and live. I mean, just raising the

bar a little bit, right?

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Paden: Let's talk about Puerto Rico. Um, you know, this is something that, as a tax planner

myself, it is very interesting. You know, Mike lives in Puerto Rico and kind of explain. Why, and

what, what, why you're there,

Mike: so, uh, I, I split my time, uh, six, you know, six months in a day,

Paden: 183 days. Right.

Mike: uh, in Puerto Rico. And, uh, my wife and I live in San Juan, uh, but my corporate

headquarters for my businesses are back in Norfolk, Virginia. and we, there's a personal and

professional reasons why we're here. I'll just, the, the quick on the personal side is my wife is

half Puerto Rican. her mom was born on the island. Her grandparents, uh, lived and [00:18:00]

worked and, you know, there were a hundred percent Puerto Rican. So she wanted to, uh, get

back to the culture.

We both wanted to learn Spanish. She's much further along than I am. but I mean, the second

reason is, it's tax incentives. the biggest import into Puerto Rico is are, are tax incentives. They

have a, a program called Act 60, that if you are an entrepreneur and a business owner and you

can work remotely. Still operate a business back on the mainland. You can import as a

consultant money from your business into Puerto Rico. It's an expense to your business in the

United States, which means you don't pay tax on it. And in Puerto Rico, uh, to a corporation you

set up here, you only pay a corporate tax rate of up to 4%.

So like for a business owner who's. Got passed through [00:19:00] and, you know, they're in the

32% bracket, 26% effective. Would you rather pay 26 or would you rather pay four? and it, it

allows for, uh, like for me, what it allows for is it's part wealth building, but it's also expansion.

Right?

It allows me to, you know, not having, the IRSI, I know I'm gonna get audited one day, so I just

speak the truth, right? I'm not trying to hide behind what we're doing. But, because our, books

and records are really clean on this. But, you know, if I could, if I save, like personally I save, I

save 20, uh, 27.6% in taxes between federal and state, Virginia state taxes.

That 27 cents on every dollar that we make, if I reinvest half of that into growth of One Oak

Financial. It's almost, it's almost a competitive disadvantage to everybody we're working against.

And then if

Paden: less drag on your performance than

Mike: correct, and then if I save 12% for me and my wife personally, [00:20:00] well now we're

getting ahead financially.

Now we're, we're still saving what we saved before, you know, maxing out retirement plans all to

such, but now we're also saving 12% in a brokerage account. Right. Our net worth is growing

faster, and both of us are first generation wealth folks, right? We didn't come from anything. We

didn't inherit, we're not going to inherit.

So like we need to use everything we can do to, you know, build wealth for ourselves, for our

kids, you know, ultimately get to our goals in life, our retirement goals, the, the, you know, the

third part of it, you know, I said it's personal and it's professional. The next thing is we just live on

an island.

Right. And, you know, and, and,

Paden: beautiful island.

Mike: that's right. And a lot of people wanna say, well, what about the hurricanes at six or seven

days a year maybe at most. Right. We still haven't had, you know, in 2025 there's been zero

impact, right? There's one that went just a little north of us, but it just created eight foot waves

for the surfers to go out and surf.

It's not, not, that's not that big of a deal, but, you know, it's, uh, [00:21:00] you know, they say,

what about the power or the internet? Well, we have it 99. Right. That's right. We have it 99% of

the time. You know? Um, and, and some people will say, well, you shouldn't move somewhere

just for taxes yet. We do that all the time in the United States.

People retire from Illinois and they move to Florida. People retire from New York and they move

to Florida. People go from California to Nevada. We'll move PE people move all the time for six,

7% state income tax savings. Because the weather's great. Uh, most people when they hear

about the Puerto Rico incentive business owners, they're like, wow, that's nice.

And then they need to consider it. And we have some out, you know, we have some outlets. I

was just telling you on the beforehand, like last night we had a entrepreneur event where, uh,

200.

Paden: you've got a bunch of great communities down there,

Mike: Oh, right, we do. Right. There was 250 entrepreneurs, um, that were here. Most are from

the mainland, some are from Europe and [00:22:00] other islands.

But, um, you know, uncommon entrepreneurs is a, is one group that gets together. Another one

is the San Juan Social Club. San Juan Social Club does a cruise every year in March. It's a

seven day event that is just, it's just absolutely amazing because you're on a boat with 500 other

entrepreneurs who, I mean, there's coaching and mentoring and you know, and if you're, if

you're truly an entrepreneur, you live the entrepreneur spirit.

It's that cruise is not a vacation, right? You go to a do a few cool

Paden: workshops, you're working on yourself,

Mike: All, all the time. Right. And it's, it's one of the best. Uh, and, and I mean there's like,

obviously there's financial planners there. A few of us, there's real estate folks, there's

marketing, crypto, companies that operate businesses, media companies.

And you just learn from people. And you know, if you ever, if you ever feel like you haven't found

your group of entrepreneurs. That want to grow and be like you, well you have to go find that

group and [00:23:00] like we found our group in Puerto Rico,

Paden: just follow up what you say there. Absolutely. And that's been a huge game changer for

me. I found a really great group, you know, in the last few years that has really elevated me.

And, and you know, to your other point of like, you know, capital's gonna go where it's treated

best.

Like, and I know as much as people like hate that or unpatriotic or what, you know, I mean,

sometimes that, that. Upsets people, but it's just a fact. Like the capital's gonna move around to

where it's treated best. You know, ultimately, it'll eventually move to where, where you know,

Puerto Rico or wherever else they think they can operate the most

Mike: Right. Well, we all have to. We all have to be like, I have a son who's in the US Navy. I'm

not, it's not that I'm not patriotic to the United States, right? I, I love the United States. I love

North Carolina. I love Virginia. I love everywhere I've visited. I love the national parks. You know,

we have offices in Norfolk and.

That stretch across the United States all the way to Honolulu. I mean, we are, we are a national

firm in what we do. I love, I love the United [00:24:00] States, but at the end of the day, right, it's

about if for, for an entrepreneur, right? It's about making money. Then retaining as much of it as

you can. You know, and it's the same thing for like our, you know, our clients, right?

We want to do the same thing. So as opposed to, like, for instance, having a bank, like a money

setting in a bank and a CD earning 3% where the bank is lending it out at eight. So the bank is

making more money than you're making. Well, we wanna negotiate to try to find a way to get

you more income. Off of there.

And it's the same thing when it comes to taxes. Taxes are the largest expense you'll ever have

in your life.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Mike: I mean, it's not even close, right, to any other expense you're gonna have and to say, oh,

well what about your house? It's not even close. I've

Paden: really not, not over the, the course of your life. Not even close.

Yeah.

Mike: I've done the numbers and you've done the numbers, and so like, if I can find a way for a

portion of my life, I'm not, I'm not saying that Leon and I are committed to Puerto Rico from now

until our death, [00:25:00] but for the next 6, 8, 10, 12 years, if we can save, if, if we could save

23, 24, 20 5% taxes,

Paden: Compound that for a few years.

Mike: Correct. Right there, there, there is no, you cannot negotiate an asset under fee, an asset

under management fee down or anything on a financial product. You can't negotiate that down

low enough. You can't, you, you can't negotiate a CPA's fee. You can't negoti negotiate an

attorney's fee. Nothing you could do to negotiate.

Would be better than the tax savings you can have by making strategic tax moves. Uh, Puerto

Rico is probably a little more insane for most people

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. Most people just won't consider it and, and

Mike: Right. They, and they probably shouldn't 'cause they have kids and grandkids and family

and all that, but there are so many tax strategies in the tax code that if you get with a really good

tax planner, that you could save three, four, 5% in taxes per [00:26:00] year.

And if you do that right, compound a saving of three to 5% in taxes over 25 years. And look what

that does,

Paden: You're, uh, you're, you're, you're getting me excited over

Mike: right.

Paden: You're speaking. Yeah. So, you know, this is, we preach this to our. Clients every day.

and, and we try to help clients every day and reach out to new people every day of, of, talking to

'em about the importance of tax planning and how big of effect, you know, not only, it's not just

like one year savings, but you know, savings all this money, you know, every year through real

strategic planning.

And you, you know, you either reinvest that money or pull, put it in your own net worth or

whatever and let that compound out. Like strategic planning will, you know, gonna have a

massive effect of where you end up, you know, out there.

Mike: entrepreneurs are not stupid people. They've realized, a problem and they found the

solution and then they profited off that. Uh, the interesting thing is, is before they knew that

problem existed, the [00:27:00] problem wasn't solved out there. Right. The problem was there

beforehand.

and I'm gonna say something that, you know, I say all the time when I go on podcasts, and I

know you're a CPA, but I know you're not the CP I'm getting ready to talk about. Right.

Paden: this CPA myself too.

Mike: is nothing but a historian.

A historian who, because every year they take documents from the past, they put 'em on a form,

and that historical document becomes the tax return. There's a big difference between A CPA

who, who does tax returns and A CPA who does tax planning. Because every, the, the three to

5% in tax savings is done through planning, not doing the return. And a, an entrepreneur, once

they hear that and then they actually go through a tax planning session, they will all of a sudden

want more and more tax planning.

And that's where a good tax planner comes into, into play.

Paden: Yeah. and here's the thing. When we go into entrepreneur [00:28:00] situations, like you,

you know, as our firm we're, you know, obviously you. You're preaching to the choir. Like, um,

when we go in entrepreneur situational, we're designing a deal. Like we're we're coming in, it's

like, Hey, we're gonna help you do, do all this and you're gonna get, you're, you're gonna have a

return on investment worth working with us.

Meaning, you know, it's like we're gonna provide you way more value than we're charging you

by helping you strategically move things around and, and, and make your situation this more,

much more efficient. Um, so it's like it's. You know when once that clicks in with entrepreneurs

and I tell 'em that, they're like, oh, okay.

Let's do it. You know? But, but it's, it's trying to explain that, right?

Mike: Yeah. And I, you know, I wrote a book called the one of a Kind Financial Plan. I mean,

just, it puts, it puts into detail more of like our financial planning process. But taxes are a five of

the five key pillar, the pillars of our plan. Uh, taxes are the number one thing because. If you

don't have a real tax plan, you're doing exactly what the IRS and the government wants you to

do.

Paden: [00:29:00] Yeah.

Mike: And most of the time that's overpaying taxes or taking tax money when they want you to,

like required minimum distributions or, you know, when you pass away, you know, the, the, the,

the leaky tax that comes out. You know, because of, you know, how, how your kids inherit

money. There is tax strategy that if you sit down with a really qualified person who's got the time,

right?

This comes back to discipline, right? It's like that whole not eating fast food. When you don't eat

fast food, you got more time. So if you sit down with somebody who's got time in their schedule

to actually do the planning with you and is just not trying to put you into whatever, like a one size

fits all solution, then all of a sudden you're gonna realize the benefits are, are huge with a true

tax planner on your side.

Paden: to me it's an industry problem like that. It, it's a, it's an industry problem that, you know,

the vast majority of tax returns are done by mom and pop. CPA firms, you know, call it 15 people

or less. And, and they're generalists and they do taxes for everybody and, [00:30:00] and all

their work is jammed into a, you know, call it a 12 week timeline.

And they have no interest in doing tax planning with you, right? Like they literally are

incentivized to, and, and once again, this is generally speaking, but like they're incentivized to

get tax returns done. And, and, and that's it. Their, their model is not looking forward, and it's like

people keep going there and asking for something that they don't even do.

Mike: it's a good business,

Paden: Yeah.

Yeah. It's cashed out. Yeah.

Mike: it's, it's crazy. It's a good business for them, but like, because really what they're doing,

like again, they're just taking the information. You provide 'em, they're putting it on another piece

of paper, and then they're just reconciling numbers. There. So like, um, and you know, maybe

there's a suggestion in there to like, Hey, why don't you put 7,000 into a traditional IRA to

Paden: yeah, you can dump, yeah. Put some money in an IRA.

Mike: Right.

Right. and a lot of people think that's tax planning. Well, that's not, that's not full fledged tax

planning.

Paden: that's a suggestion.

Mike: that's right. It's a, it's a suggestion. Right. And so there, there's a, there there's a lot of

[00:31:00] things that come into tax planning. I mean, like there's, uh, you know, like, and there's

all these strategies like the Augusta rule, right? that, trust me, everybody in Augusta, Georgia

knows this rule, right?

Paden: You know, the funny thing is I, I don't know they do because I, I have a buddy in my

group that is from Augusta and I had to explain it to him.

Mike: really holy cow. I mean, you have a, you

Paden: He's like,

I thought that what?

Mike: I mean, you have a part of the tax code that was created for a golf tournament that came

just for you. Right? It was named after you. And you don't know what it is, but I mean, it's like,

before we were in Puerto Rico, we used this, right? We have a, pool in our backyard.

it's meant for entertaining. And so my wife and I, my wife was a realtor. I have my business. We

would have like.

Paden: professional. Was she.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. She was a real, yeah, she is. She's still a real estate professional, but she,

she would have client events. She would have five or six client events there a year. I would do,

uh, like corporate retreats, like I'd bring everybody into our office and we just had like July 4th

this year, we just had a party at my [00:32:00] house, like July 3rd where I brought everybody

over.

And like, the great thing about that is, is if it's business related and you do it 14 times or less per

year, you can take the money out of your business, bring it into your home, and you don't pay

tax on it. And it's, it's, it's legal, right? It's not like it, and it's

Paden: Long as you document it and you know there's justifiable reason behind it. Absolutely.

It's

Mike: It. It's not even gray. Right? It's not even gray.

Paden: it's, it's very common. And here's the thing. 99% of businesses don't do it. And, because

they'll go to their CPA, you know, I'll, say something, or they'll see a TikTok video, whatever.

They'll go to their CPA and their CPA will say. Oh, it's just a few thousand bucks. Like, do you

really wanna mess with it? Whatever, because they've literally never been built Any processes

around helping clients do that. Me and my firm, we got great processes. We make it super easy

on you that we document, check all the boxes we have every, like, if you ever were to be

audited, well here's the file, you know, here's the documentation.

they're just not even set up to help you [00:33:00] with that.

Mike: it's also one of those things that in the grand world of it's not used that much in the IRS

world. So if you did get audited and you told 'em what you did it for, and you got, you know, you

got a. you know, like we have a yacht club that's down the road that's somewhat comparable to

us in rental space.

We have their rental rate sheet.

Paden: Yeah. Oh yeah. We pull comps, we do it

Mike: Yeah. Just, just as common practice every year, every January, uh, we just call, we get

their rate sheet for the year and we just put it in our tax folder. Right. That way if we ever get

audited, we can look, we can say, look,

Paden: like a little, we didn't just make this up, right?

Mike: No, and, and it's, it's a, you know, if you, you know, yes, it's three, four.

I mean, it could be three, four, 5,000

Paden: Yeah. It, it just really depends, but it, it's probably several thousand dollars for most

people, for sure.

Mike: Yeah. If you did it, if you did it 10 or 12 times a year. Now think about the tax free. People

always want tax free income. Well, that's what that is. It's tax free income. You make it in your

business, you pay yourself. You just shifted to you and it's tax [00:34:00] free, so, and there's

other, there's a lot of other things out

Paden: oh yeah, there's a million things you can do. Right? And, and yeah, you, you know, I can

sit here and talk about this all day too.

Mike: Yeah.

Paden: Um, but it, it's just like, it's important and, you know, of course. You know, it's, it's

important to work, you know, if that's what you're looking for, stop going to, you know, the, the

same firms and expecting something to happen there because they just like, they just don't do

that.

Mike: Right. Yeah. And I mean, we have the same thing, like, I mean, I know you're A CFP too.

We have the same thing where people continue to work with x, y, Z bank down the corner. Right.

And they just, you know, as a general rule, they just, you know, they're just babysitting your

money and they're, and.

Paden: Yeah,

Mike: and you're paying them, you're paying a very expensive fee for them to babysit your

money.

You know, same, same thing working with like major firms and, you know, CFPs

Paden: you got no advisor. You know, say your money's set in some large firm and it's just

sitting there and they're charging you a large asset under management fee and there's not a

person you can even [00:35:00] talk to.

Mike: and, and, you know, uh, we're making a, we're making light of it, right? But this is real

money that. Everyday middle Americans, people that have worked hard, it's just they're losing

the money game, and a lot of times they lose it because they feel ashamed to ask the question.

They feel like there's nobody who's really out for them.

They feel like the system is rigged against them. But, but guys, there's, there are people out

there. There's, um, the, I mean like our two firms, right? We're out here that we're not going to

take advantage of your situation. We educate first. And when you educate first and you

understand, it helps you negotiate better, it helps you with us or with whoever.

And when you can negotiate better, when you can negotiate with confidence, then you're gonna

end up winning more when it comes to your money.

Paden: Yeah. you know, I love that you say that. I can tell you take a lot of the same

approaches I do with clients of just like, well, let's just lay it out [00:36:00] all on the table here.

Let's, here's the pros and cons of everything, and, and I'm here to help you make a really

educated choice.

You know, and, and, and ultimately it's your choice. You know, I, I have what I think maybe you

should do, but like, I can't force you to do anything. but I can educate you on it, um, and help

you make that decision.

So, moving to you, Mike, you know, obviously we got lots of entrepreneurs, you know, me and

you work with launch entrepreneurs, and that's the vast majority of the listenership. Like what,

you know, if you were to give them just overarching one. Piece of financial advice that you think

is just really important?

What? What would that be?

Mike: That's a good question. Um, the thing that ruins small businesses more than anything is

not paying your taxes. And I'm sure, and I'm sure it with over a hundred podcasts, when you've

asked people before, you've probably heard that multiple times, like, pay your taxes. But the

great thing about being an entrepreneur is you have, there's something that you can do first, and

that's pay yourself first.

Paden: Hmm.

Mike: See, um, uh, [00:37:00] most people, so, so like the pay your taxes is the overarching

general kind of one size fits all approach. Here's like, my advice for entrepreneurs is, is to pay

yourself first. most people go into entrepreneur ship to get their time back, but what they, but

what they really have done is they have just created a job now that they own.

Paden: Oh, a hundred percent. I've guilty. Guilty for a lot of years of

Mike: yeah, yeah, me too. Me too. And there's, there's peaks and through. So they, you know,

instead of owning a business that works, with you and for you, they just own a business where

they own a job. And so, you know, not only are they doing a full-time job that they can, give to

somebody else to do and leverage that, but they're doing that job, plus they're doing the

business

Paden: Trying to run the business at the same time on the side. Right.

Mike: Yeah. And a and you know, an, an entrepreneur is right, there's a badge of honor out

there that, ooh, I work a hundred hours a week. Well, that's

Paden: I used to wear that proudly, and I [00:38:00] don't want it at all anymore.

Mike: Now we've, now, now we're starting to come into a, Period of time where they're like, uh,

you know, I work four hours a week, right? I only work four hours a week and I make a hundred

million dollars.

Right? I mean, those people are few and far between, but they, they have the idea of a

business, right? Like you own a business when the business can operate independent of you.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Mike: That's a business. You own a job when everything is dependent on you. And you know,

I'm guilty because I own a couple of businesses now.

I have one business that it just, there's nothing, there's nothing it doesn't require, it requires

maybe 20 minutes for me a week. It's a really good seven figure business. It's really good

business there's three employees in that. They're running it.

It's great. And again, it just does not involve my time. The only time it really involves my time is

doing the financial work with the accountant in September. Right. Just got an email this morning

that my

Paden: got that extended tax return

Mike: That's right. Got extended tax return and they're like, [00:39:00] Hey, don't forget to get

this in.

Right. And then there's like, and there's a business. Like what I enjoy doing is I love being with

people in person talking about the financial problems they have. Well, that business has a

bottleneck with me, right. Because, ' cause there's so many people that want to speak with me,

but like there's only so much time in the day.

And so, you know, my team that runs One Oak Financial, they do a really good job of getting the

most high. You know, you know people with the biggest problems, people that are falling into

like. the idea that they really wanna be one of a kind. And so like, one of the things I would say

is to a business owner, manage your time very well, own your business, and then try to, don't be

afraid to hire people to do the work that you can do.

There's a lot of entrepreneurs that'll do $12 and $15 hour. Per our job all day long. and you

know how we create jobs, how we grow America's economy is we hire those people out, you

know, and then they'll. You know, and I'm guilty of this too. [00:40:00] I've used virtual assistants

overseas. Uh, and you know, so I will, I, I'll start there where, you know, you pay less than what

you would pay here for somebody who could do a remote job.

And then when it becomes more right, then you hire somebody here locally to do that. But the

biggest advice I can give is try to own your business. Don't let it own you.

Paden: and the only way you can do that is, is put in organization, right? And, and just the

general stereotype personality of an entrepreneur that, you know, they're generally this high a

driving person and, and not necessarily wanting to slow down to do anything detail. You know,

that's not every entrepreneur, but that is.

Like kind of the profile of entrepreneur. And so yeah, you see that a lot where, you know, they're

just running a hundred miles an hour and there's not a system ever been built. It's all in their

head and they're running around like, and, and they have to solve every problem. Because

nobody else knows how to solve it without 'em.

And, and some people I probably in that group get addicted to that, where you're like, oh, I'm

this important person and everything has to [00:41:00] go through me. And, and, and some of

that you gotta get over a little bit yourself. And it's, it's having that confidence and investing in

other people, knowing that, you know, they're good too.

And you know, if they can, they can do it. You know, 80% the way you, you can do it, you, you

really need to get rid of it.

Mike: I was literally getting ready to say 80% the same thing that you just said because it's so

true, right? Nobody, um, nobody can see the problem solved like in your head the way you can.

But boy, if you can allow somebody else who can do it 80% of the way, you will. Right. and the

client is good with that.

Your customer is good with that. Right? and you've put your customer in a better situation. That

80% that somebody else done allows you to go do more

Paden: Yeah. Higher. Higher, just higher leverage work. Right? Just higher leverage work.

Right. And it's, it's, man, I've never been so more clear in, in, in what I need to be working on in

my own business of like, man, I finally actually have my head up a little bit, right? Where

[00:42:00] I'm actually looking down the field instead of.

what email just came in or what do we have to do today? Right. And, and you know, really

successful people, they're looking years down the road, not, you know, the longer, you know, the

longer your timeframe, your decisions are made on just generally the more successful you're

gonna be. If you're playing the longer game, the infinite game, you're gonna be more successful

in a

Mike: There's no doubt about that.

Paden: Mike, man, this has been an amazing conversation. I appreciate you coming on. what's

the best way people can learn more about you, your firm, or just really anything else you got

going on?

Mike: Well, there's, I mean, there's two ways. Um, uh, I very much believe if you've heard that

everybody's one of a kind. I don't think that anybody is, should be like anybody else. So, you

know, I have this saying like, you should be one of a kind. Every day wake up, be one of a kind.

My other big saying is, never miss a moment because, you know, a moment missed is an

opportunity lost.

so, uh, I give people, you know, really two chances to connect with me. You can connect with

me personally [00:43:00] just by going to mike milligan.com. Uh, there you're gonna find some

interesting tools, right? I have, uh, there I have the one of a kind financial plan, the book that's

there. I have another book called Retirement Deja Vu.

People can, uh, can log in and, uh, see more details. I also teach at a college in, uh, Virginia

called Old Dominion University, where we teach a personal financial planning class. It's a six

week course on how to negotiate. With big, you know, with big companies. So it's $199 course

that we, that we run a hundred people every six weeks where we're sold out for the September

cohort, but we're already starting the October cohort.

But it's a great, it's a, it's great because it's, it's a group of people that are looking to learn

together on how to be more successful. And, you know, we don't expect anything from them

except for at the end they're more educated. On what to do. So you could find more information

there on www.mikemilligan.com.

On our firm, you can go to [00:44:00] www.1oakfinancial.com, that's the number one oak

financial.com. And there you'll be able to learn more about our team, where we're located, what

our philosophy is on managing money, and just what sets us apart in a very crowded, in a very

crowded space. And I

think what you'll find is what sets us apart is that we're more, more focused on you. What Wall

Street and Main Street's doing

Paden: Yeah. Yeah, Mike, I appreciate that. And you know, I, once again, as a, as a guy that's

dedicated my life mostly to financial education and, and those types of things, I, you know, I

appreciate.

Mike: absolutely.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,

review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're

trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.

Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. [00:45:00] Thanks guys.