The Show

Owning a profitable business in the trades comes with financial decisions that extend beyond everyday business expenses. Are you taking full advantage of the planning opportunities available to you?

William Yex, CFP®, CEPA®, joins The Real Money Pros to discuss several tax-planning considerations for owners of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, construction, and other service-based businesses.

In this conversation, we cover:

- How retirement plans, including cash balance plans, may help eligible business owners build retirement savings while managing taxable income
- Why business structure, including an S corporation election, can matter as profitability grows
- How equipment purchases and depreciation may affect business taxes
- Why tax decisions should be evaluated alongside cash flow, retirement goals, and long-term business plans

These strategies aren't appropriate for every business. Profitability, employee obligations, entity structure, and individual circumstances all influence which opportunities are worth exploring.

Have questions about your financial plan? Visit our website to connect with an advisor ➡️ https://www.therealmoneypros.com/

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Ataraxis PEO
https://ataraxispeo.com
 
Tree City Advisors of Apollon:
https://www.treecityadvisors.com
 
Apollon Wealth Management:
https://apollonwealthmanagement.com/
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00:00 Tax-planning opportunities for business owners
01:40 Retirement plans and cash balance plans
03:01 Business structure and S corporations
04:48 Equipment depreciation and Section 179
05:15 Cost segregation for business real estate

#SmallBusinessTaxes #BusinessTaxPlanning #TradesBusiness

What makes a business more attractive to potential buyers? 💵

Two things worth paying attention to: recurring revenue and clean financials.

Neither guarantees a higher valuation, but both can make a difference when it's time to sell. And they're worth working on long before you put up the for-sale sign.

#businessowners #trades #exitplanning #bluecollar
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Apollon Wealth Management, LLC (“Apollon”) provides advice and make recommendations based on the specific needs and circumstances of each client. The information contained herein is intended for information purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Please contact your financial advisor with questions about your specific needs and circumstances. Apollon does not provide tax advice, individuals are strongly advised to consult with a tax professional before making any tax-related decisions. The information provided herein may not be relied on for purposes of avoiding taxes. The specific considerations for you may need expertise or review by a tax professional, licensed insurance provider, estate planning attorney or other professional to determine how it applies to you. Information provided is generic in nature, for educational purposes and not specific advice. Speak with your tax professional about your specific personal considerations before making any planning decisions. Please visit our website http://apollonwealthmanagement.com for other important disclosures.

This October 10th, Jeremiah Bates covers two important areas of financial planning: navigating changing bond yields and building long-term value in blue-collar businesses.

Hour 1: Bond Prices, Yields & Retirement Income

With changing interest-rate expectations affecting the bond market, Jeremiah explains why bond prices and yields move in opposite directions and what that means for investors. He discusses the difference between a bond's market value and the income it generates, opportunities in fixed-income and dividend-paying investments, and why retirees need to balance income, liquidity and long-term growth while accounting for inflation.

Hour 2: Building Value in Blue-Collar Businesses with William Yex, CFP®

Jeremiah welcomes William Yex, a Wealth Management Advisor with Apollon Wealth Management who specializes in serving blue-collar business owners, particularly those in HVAC, plumbing, electrical and construction.

They discuss what makes a trade business valuable, including owner dependency, customer concentration, recurring revenue and clean financial records. William also shares his perspective on private equity interest in the trades, tax and retirement planning strategies for business owners, and protecting what they've built through insurance and succession planning.


Find an advisor for you ↙️
https://www.therealmoneypros.com

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Our amazing sponsors:

Ataraxis PEO
https://ataraxispeo.com
 
Tree City Advisors of Apollon:
https://www.treecityadvisors.com
 
Apollon Wealth Management:
https://apollonwealthmanagement.com/
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00:00 HOUR 1 | Bond Prices, Yields & Retirement Income
05:30 Interest Rates and Bond Market Expectations
11:40 Understanding Bond Prices and Yields
24:00 Dividend Stocks and Retirement Income
39:40 HOUR 2 | Building Value in Blue-Collar Businesses
50:40 What Makes a Trade Business Valuable?
59:30 Tax and Retirement Planning for Business Owners
70:00 Business Protection and Succession Planning

What actually makes a business more valuable to a potential buyer? And if your business isn't worth what you need to retire, what can you do about it?

Jeff Szczypinski of WR Valuations joins the Real Money Pros to discuss the factors that influence business valuations and the steps owners can take to improve their position before selling.

Listen to the full podcast 🎧 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-money-pros/id1264813274

In this conversation, we cover ⬇️

- How a business valuation can identify weaknesses and opportunities for improvement
- Why management succession, customer relationships, and supplier risks matter
- The difference between selling a business and selling yourself a job
- How different types of buyers can value the same business differently
- Why revenue growth doesn't necessarily translate into greater business value
- How to develop a targeted plan to address the issues that matter most to buyers

🌐 Need help selling your business? Contact us!
https://www.therealmoneypros.com/
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00:00 What if your business isn't worth enough to sell?
00:41 Using a valuation to identify weaknesses
02:43 Why you need to start planning early
04:33 Are you selling a business or a job?
06:00 How the type of buyer affects your value
07:57 What attracts a larger pool of buyers?
09:37 Why revenue growth isn't everything
10:10 Building a targeted improvement plan
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#BusinessValuation #BusinessExitPlanning #SellingABusiness

A #privateinvestment can be sexy… until you want your money back 😦

Unlike a stock you can sell tomorrow, your money in a private investment could be tied up for years. That doesn’t make it a bad investment, but it does mean you need to understand the tradeoff before jumping in.

The return might look attractive. Just make sure the timeline works for you!
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Apollon Wealth Management, LLC (“Apollon”) provides advice and makes recommendations based on the specific needs and circumstances of each client. The information contained herein is intended for information purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Please contact your financial advisor with questions about your specific needs and circumstances. Please visit our website http://apollonwealthmanagement.com for other important disclosures. 
Alternative investments — including private equity, private credit, hedge funds, real estate, and venture capital — are available only to clients who meet applicable accredited investor or qualified purchaser requirements. These investments involve a high degree of risk, typically have limited liquidity, and are not suitable for all investors. Clients should carefully review all offering memoranda, prospectuses, and related disclosure documents before investing. See Apollon's Alternative Investment Risk Disclosure and Form ADV Part 2A for additional information.

A financial decision can make perfect sense on its own and still create an unexpected consequence somewhere else.

This week, Jeremiah and Nic look at that tax domino effect through situations they're dealing with in actual planning. A rental property is sold for needed liquidity, but the capital gain could affect the owner's wife's ACA health insurance subsidy. A Roth conversion could improve the long-term tax picture while increasing income today. And a deduction that reduces taxable income may not necessarily reduce the MAGI number you're trying to manage.

They also discuss Roth vs. pre-tax contributions, partial 1031 exchanges, SEP IRAs vs. individual 401(k)s, accelerating business expenses and building tax diversification before retirement. The question isn't simply whether any one strategy is a good idea. It's what else changes when you use it.

With the fourth quarter underway, Jeremiah and Nic explain why now is the time to start putting those pieces together, especially for strategies that need to be completed before year-end.


Listen, Watch, & Connect!
https://www.therealmoneypros.com

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Ataraxis PEO
https://ataraxispeo.com
 
Tree City Advisors of Apollon:
https://www.treecityadvisors.com
 
Apollon Wealth Management:
https://apollonwealthmanagement.com/
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Infrastructure today goes well beyond roads and bridges 🌉 Data centers, power generation, digital infrastructure, water systems and other projects could require enormous amounts of capital over the coming decades. Did someone say $150T?

#privateinfrastructure #datacenter #privateinvestment #ai
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Apollon Wealth Management, LLC (“Apollon”) provides advice and makes recommendations based on the specific needs and circumstances of each client. The information contained herein is intended for information purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Please contact your financial advisor with questions about your specific needs and circumstances. Please visit our website http://apollonwealthmanagement.com for other important disclosures.

Alternative investments — including private equity, private credit, hedge funds, real estate, and venture capital — are available only to clients who meet applicable accredited investor or qualified purchaser requirements. These investments involve a high degree of risk, typically have limited liquidity, and are not suitable for all investors. Clients should carefully review all offering memoranda, prospectuses, and related disclosure documents before investing. See Apollon's Alternative Investment Risk Disclosure and Form ADV Part 2A for additional information.

The AI boom isn't just about chips and software. It also requires an enormous amount of physical infrastructure ⚡️

Data centers need power, cooling, security, connectivity and facilities capable of operating around the clock. Building and operating that infrastructure has created another side of the AI investment story: private infrastructure.

Christian McCormick, CFA, Head of Client Portfolio Management, joins The Real Money Pros to explain how these investments actually work.

In this conversation 🎙️
- How investors can access private infrastructure
- Why data centers have become an important infrastructure investment
- Where the cash flow actually comes from
- The importance of long-term contracts
- How inflation adjustments can be built into infrastructure agreements
- Why some infrastructure projects carry significantly more risk than others

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Apollon Wealth Management, LLC (“Apollon”) provides advice and make recommendations based on the specific needs and circumstances of each client. The information contained herein is intended for information purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Please contact your financial advisor with questions about your specific needs and circumstances. Apollon does not provide tax advice, individuals are strongly advised to consult with a tax professional before making any tax-related decisions. The information provided herein may not be relied on for purposes of avoiding taxes. The specific considerations for you may need expertise or review by a tax professional, licensed insurance provider, estate planning attorney or other professional to determine how it applies to you. Information provided is generic in nature, for educational purposes and not specific advice. Speak with your tax professional about your specific personal considerations before making any planning decisions. Please visit our website http://apollonwealthmanagement.com for other important disclosures.
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00:00 How Private Infrastructure Generates Returns
01:10 Core vs. Opportunistic Infrastructure
01:30 How AI Data Centers Make Money
02:24 Inflation Protection & Investor Cash Flow
03:21 Where Higher Return Potential Comes From
06:19 Balancing Risk, Return & Investor Goals

Private markets have historically been dominated by pensions, endowments and other large institutional investors. But as access expands, individual investors are increasingly encountering private equity, private credit and other investments outside the traditional public markets.

This week, Jeremiah Bates and Alex Lundgren are joined by Christian McCormick, CFA, Head of Client Portfolio Management at Meketa Capital, for a three-hour deep dive into how private markets actually work. Christian explains the differences between public and private investments, why companies are staying private longer, and how private equity firms invest in and work with businesses. They also break down venture capital, growth equity and buyouts, along with the due diligence involved in evaluating private investments.

Then, the conversation turns to the investor's side of the equation: liquidity, long holding periods, drawdown funds, evergreen and interval funds, portfolio allocation and the tradeoffs that come with investing in assets that can't simply be sold with the click of a button.

Finally, Christian takes a closer look at private infrastructure, including power generation, transportation, pipelines, digital infrastructure and data centers. They discuss why infrastructure has attracted more investor attention, how these projects can generate income and returns, and where inflation protection and diversification can fit into the picture.


Listen, Watch, & Connect!
https://www.therealmoneypros.com

Christian McCormick & Meketa Capital
https://meketacapital.com/profile-mccormick

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Ataraxis PEO
https://ataraxispeo.com
 
Tree City Advisors of Apollon:
https://www.treecityadvisors.com
 
Apollon Wealth Management:
https://apollonwealthmanagement.com/
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00:00 — HOUR 1: Private Equity & Private Markets
03:16 Meet Christian McCormick of Meketa Capital
05:21 What Are Private Markets?
11:58 Why Private Equity Gets a Bad Reputation
15:57 Where Private Markets Can Create Opportunity
20:01 How Private Equity Firms Improve Businesses
32:02 Venture Capital vs. Private Equity
36:02 Why Companies Are Staying Private Longer
40:00 How Much Should You Invest in Private Markets?
44:01 The Liquidity Trade-Off
50:00 How Private Equity Funds Actually Work
53:59 Interval Funds & Tender Offer Funds
59:59 — HOUR 2: Minimum Investments & Access to Private Markets
64:00 Valuations and the Advantage of Staying Private
70:00 Diversifying Across Private Investments
74:59 What Is Private Infrastructure?
80:00 Why Private Investments Feel Riskier
90:00 — HOUR 3: The Infrastructure Investment Opportunity
94:00 Data Centers, AI & Power Demand
100:00 How Private Infrastructure Investments Work
106:00 Energy Infrastructure & Private Capital
110:00 Where Private Infrastructure Fits in a Portfolio
115:59 Returns, Risk & the Illiquidity Premium
118:49 Liquidity in Private Infrastructure