215. You Make Good Money… So Why Aren’t You Wealthy? // with CFP Chad Taylor

Making a good income doesn’t automatically mean you’re building wealth.

In this episode of Money & Legacy, Laura sits down with Chad Taylor, CFP® and founder of Seapoint Wealth Advisors, to talk about what happens after you start earning good money—and how families can turn income into long-term wealth, freedom, and legacy.

Chad has spent more than 20 years helping families and business owners navigate investing, retirement planning, and turbulent markets. Together, Laura and Chad unpack why some high earners still struggle to build wealth, how lifestyle creep quietly works against you, and why your behavior can matter even more than picking the “perfect” investment.

They also talk about when it makes sense to DIY your investments, when professional guidance may become valuable, what families should be thinking about 5–10 years before retirement, and how wealth can eventually become a tool for generosity and multigenerational impact.

In this episode:

• Why a high income does not necessarily create wealth
• The difference between earning more and actually keeping more
• Why debt payoff and an emergency fund come before investing
• How lifestyle creep can sabotage even high-income families
• Why starting early matters so much when building wealth
• How fear and greed affect investment decisions
• Why trying to time the market can cost you years
• The danger of checking your investments too often
• What to think about 5–10 years before retirement
• How to know when you may have outgrown DIY investing
• Why owning multiple investments doesn’t automatically mean you’re diversified
• How families can use wealth for charitable giving and legacy
• Teaching the next generation to respect wealth instead of simply inheriting it

Chad also shares one of the biggest lessons he has learned from decades of working with investors: successful wealth building often has less to do with finding a brilliant strategy and more to do with creating a sound plan—and having the discipline to stick with it.

If your family is moving beyond survival mode and asking, “Okay… now what do we build with this money?” this conversation is for you.

Connect with Chad Taylor

Learn more about Chad and Seapoint Wealth Advisors at seapointwealth.com.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadtaylorwealthmanagement/

https://www.facebook.com/chad.taylor.3720/

https://www.facebook.com/SeapointWealthAdvisors/

Important Disclaimer

This episode is for general education and informational purposes only. Nothing discussed should be considered individualized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Your situation is unique, so consult the appropriate professionals regarding your own circumstances.

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Transcript

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Laura 0:00

Hey, legacy builders. Today, I'm talking with Chad Taylor, founder of Seapoint Wealth Advisors. Chad is a CFP and has spent more than 20 years helping families and business owners navigate investing, planning, and some pretty turbulent markets. And what I really wanted to talk with him about today is what happens after you start making the good money. Because earning a strong income doesn't automatically create wealth, freedom, or legacy. Eventually, we have to take the money we're making and become intentional about what we're building with it. And before we jump in, a quick reminder. This conversation is for general education and informational purposes only. Nothing we discuss today should be considered individualized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Your situation is unique, so talk with the appropriate professionals about your own circumstances. All right, Chad, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. I'm gonna start this interview the same way I start all of them. Who is somebody whose legacy you would like to emulate?

Chad Taylor 0:59

Well, Laura, first off, thanks for having me on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Way to start off with a tough question. If I was to think about that, I would say, I wanna go with one of my clients that I have, who's also been a good friend of mine for... Gosh, we've been friends for 35 years. And what I like about his, you know, wealth that he's created is he's done it by working hard. He didn't come from wealth. He's worked really hard to build his wealth. And he's done it in a smart way. But what I also like about it, it hasn't changed him at all. He's got, a wife, four kids, putting his kids through college, but building a legacy for the kids and making... B- but he's also making them work hard, right? So it's not like they're gonna inherit this money. You know, it's by them giving to him. They've gotta work for it. So he's teaching the kids really good values on what they should appreciate with the money. But then I look at what he's building with his own legacy, too, by starting a charitable foundation, giving to different things that he really, cares about. But not really getting away from the family that he's, he's created as well, too, and taking trips with the kids and, you know, putting them through college and just being there for them. So wealth hasn't really changed him, which is what I like about what he's done.

Laura 2:09

It's one of those things that's so incredibly important. Money doesn't change a person, I don't think, but it will magnify our characteristics.

Chad Taylor 2:18

I've seen several clients go from, not having a lot to selling a business, and all of a sudden- little different personality changes come out, and I'm like, "Oh, that's interesting. That wasn't there before."

Laura 2:27

I'm curious though, I was looking through your background, and y- you spent years in the big brokerage world- Yep right? You were a senior vice president at UBS. What did you see in that world that eventually made you say, "You know what? I wanna do something different. I wanna create cPoint, and I wanna move that on"?

Chad Taylor 2:46

Yeah. So I, I knew a long time ago that I wanted to create my own practice and run my own business. It's kinda like the next step in my career, right? Going from the big firms, and now I'm owning my own practice and doing things I wanna, the way I wanna do them. But really what kinda pushed that is, you know, the big firms have changed. A- and they've always been kind of like, look, if you wanna get your higher payout or your bonus, you have to sell X amount of mortgages per year, or you have to do so many financial plans per year. Do whatever it was to get your bonus or higher payout. And, you know, that doesn't sit right with me, right? I shouldn't be thinking to my client, "Well, if I sell this financial plan to them, I get paid a bonus." And so, that's not, I don't think, the right way we should be thinking about this business. And, and the big firms are going more and more that direction. And they had made some changes along the way too, taking away some of your comp and putting it more deferred, which means they're really captive, you're really captive to that firm, 'cause it makes it harder to leave. And, and I just didn't wanna be part of that. I wanted to have my freedom to do what I wanted to do and do the right things for my clients. And so, about 2018, I started, looking at the different independent firms that were out there and I spent about two years researching, on which one fit my practice the best. And I ended up choosing LPL, because they're here in San Diego, which is where I'm located. They're the largest employer in San Diego. They're the largest independent broker dealer in the country. And, I know some of the executives. And so when I made that choice to leave the big firms, but I wanted support, LPL is the right choice. And the other thing with big firms too is, technology has changed and access to information has changed. What they provide as resources isn't as much as it used to be. You know, I can get more now being on the independent side than I could being with like a UBS or Morgan Stanley because there you're getting captive information from what they provide for you, with what they allow you to, to, to look at, to use for your clients. Where now I can go out there and pick the best thing I want to and just pay for it, right? So I just think there's more opportunities. And again, for me, it's just that next step in my career to where I wanted to own the practice versus being an employee.

Laura 4:40

Yeah, and you were working actively to br- build up other people underneath you. So it's not just you. You're really have a whole legacy that you're creating with other people that are coming along. You're mentoring them, and you're helping them grow as well.

Chad Taylor 4:53

Yeah, and that's more started now that we've been on the independent side. We've added, several advisors to our practice, and some are experienced advisors and some are more newer advisors. But, our job is to kind of build out for everybody teach them what we know and to teach them how we do financial planning and how we build investments and portfolios and how we work with our clients. I mean, it's part of the, the next generation of legacy planning.

Laura 5:13

And when you're working with your clients, do you have a focus on teaching them as well?

Chad Taylor 5:17

It depends on the client. You know, some clients just don't care. Take care of it- do it, and just let me know how we end up the year, right? Other clients wanna understand more. "Why are we doing this? Why are we building this allocation? Why is this work in the plan?" And so those clients I'll spend more time with and show them why the plan is set up this way and why we build it out and, you know, why we're allocating this money to this investment. But it... So it really depends on the personality you're working with.

Laura 5:43

I'm thinking about a lot of my listeners, right? And they... A lot of them are, finishing their debt payoff journey, and they're going into building-wealth mode. But I have others that are at the point where they're making really good money. They're no longer in survival mode. And I'm curious for you, what should they be thinking about now that the goal is not just make more money?

Chad Taylor 6:06

I agree with you, debt's gotta be the first thing that gets paid off because you're probably paying 12, 15, 16% interest on the, on those, credit cards, whatever it is. So by paying it off, you're automatically getting a 10, 12, 15% rate of return 'cause you're not paying that interest on that, on that debt. So that's gotta be step one. And then you go to step two. I think the next thing you have to do is build your emergency fund. You know, so if your expenses are, say, make up the number 5,000 a month, if your job's more secure and stable, you can probably have, 15, $20,000 in the bank, and that's what you put away, for things that come up, right? Car repair or whatever it is. If your job's more volatile, I think you need to go out a little bit further, maybe six months to nine months of emergency expenses. Because, you know, if your job's not stable and you could lose that job at any time, then you need to make sure that emergency fund's there to take care of your living expenses. So I think that's gonna be the second step before you go into investing. And then the third step is, like you said, investing, and just start. You know, if your employer offers a 401, you should be taking advantage of that 401. And especially if they match. You know, that not taking advantage of that ma- match is you're losing free money to your account that your employer's giving you. So I think that's, for people who have 401options, is the first step. And then, looking at, maxing that out or other options. If you don't have a 401, with your employer, you know, then you gotta look at what account's right for you. Do you need an IRA, a Roth IRA? Do you do a taxable account? And so that's where sitting down with somebody to kind of walk you through, what your options are can kinda help you get started on that. And sometimes, like I said, you know, when you're starting out, you know, going to, a Fidelity or a Schwab or an E-Trade and talking to one of their advisors is... There's nothing wrong with that to get started. They're, low cost. You know, you're gonna get a cookie cutter type of, investment, which is totally fine, but it's more about, where do I start my journey and how do I open that first account?

Laura 7:51

Yeah, I think that's really great. You and I have very similar philosophies when it comes to money, so I appreciate that. I'm glad that we're sharing that with the people. They're hearing it from somebody that's not just me. Get out of debt- Right save your emergency fund, and then do the investing. So that's good. What would you say is the difference between somebody that earns a lot of money and somebody that's actually building wealth?

Chad Taylor 8:10

So when you're earning a lot of money, it doesn't mean you're keeping a lot of money, right? And so that's the problem. We get lifestyle creep and, we've got higher earners that don't really have a lot of investment with us because they don't save anything. They bring in $10, they spend $12. And so you're not putting that money away towards your retirement or savings goals, right? And then I've got other people who don't really make that much, but their savings rate's, 15, 20, 25%, and they've built up a huge nest egg because, their lifestyle fits what they're making. And so I don't think you necessarily have to be a high earner to start saving. It's, it's you have to manage your expenses right to be able to start saving. And, and I think that's the, the biggest step. People have to look at, you know, just the monthly income that comes in, what goes out, and what do I have left over or do I have anything left over? I've got people who, made, $100,000, $120,000 a year but, they've built up millions of dollars because they've been saving $20,000, $30,000 a year in their account. And the earlier you start, the more you have that time compounding for you, which, really helps you build up that wealth over time because, you know, long- the longer you have, the more compounding effect you have.

Laura 9:16

Yeah. Time in the market is better than timing the market.

Chad Taylor 9:20

Absolutely.

Laura 9:21

You have said before that behavior matters more than brilliance- Yeah when it comes to investing, right? So, how do otherwise really smart, successful people sabotage their wealth building opportunities?

Chad Taylor 9:36

It's actually probably the most important thing. I always tell people, you know, if you pick a good advisor, I pick fund ABC, and the advisor down the street picks fund XYZ, if we're both good advisors, for the most part, we're not gonna be that far off on our returns after five to 10 years. And so what happens, I think, a lot of times, people start nitpicking the funds or the investments when really it's important, but it's not that important. The bigger important thing that I focus on for people is, like you said, it's behavioral because w- we wanna do the wrong thing at the wrong times. And so my biggest job a lot of times isn't necessarily managing the investments, it's to manage the psychology in the investments because, you know, when the market's down and we're losing money, it's scary, right? The market's down 15, 20%. I had $100,000 in the market, now I've got $80,000 in the market. You know, I want to sell everything. Well, that's the worst thing you can do, right? And so fear and greed drive the market. So our job a lot of times is to manage that for people. Just the opposite too. When the market's really going, strong and people also wanna buy the hottest stock because it's just up, 50% last year, we're gonna jump on that. Well, we gotta manage that greed as well, right? And so, I think the behavioral side is a bigger, bigger than investing and allocation because, clients who try to time the market, like you said before, it's not timing the market, it's time in the market. And, you know, being successful is not timing the market. I'll give an example of one of my clients back in 2008, 2009 when we had the Great Recession. And, you know, I've told this on a lot of different podcasts, but in 2008, in December, he called me and said, "Look, I can't take it." I think the market was down like 40, 45% at that time. And he's like, "I can't take it anymore. I know this is my long-term retirement money. I just-- I don't want to see it drop anymore. I need to s-sell some of it." So we only sold off 30% of his stocks, and bought bonds, okay? And he was right, because the market went from being down like forty-five percent in December down to, like, total sixty-five, sixty-six percent by March of 2009. So he missed that next twenty percent down on the market. March ninth, 2009, they changed the accounting rules, mark-to-market accounting. The market takes off and just goes gangbusters for the next three months. So he got back in the market, I think, around June or July of 2009 And just by missing that snap back in the market, so even though he was right when he sold, he didn't get back in in time, and he missed that snap back right after the market rebounded, it rebounded quickly. By missing that four months, you know, most of my clients who stayed in the market, we lost 65% of their equity stuff, they got back to even in about two to two and a half years. He didn't get back to even till eight years. So it cost him five and a half years to get back to even because of how quickly that market snapped back and he missed it. So even though he was right on timing, he wasn't right on the second time getting back in, and it cost him five years of his investments.

Laura 12:21

Wow. Okay, that hurts my heart so much. I have a friend who's an investment advisor who will call me and be like, "Hey, today's not the week to look at your investments." Yeah. "Don't tell your clients to either." I'm like, "Okay, great." It's one of those things where you can get so emotionally invested in it- Right That it, you- it is scary. But if we look at the track record, the long-term track record, most of it's up and to the right, right? Yeah. So having somebody like you that's like, "Look, I do this all the time, I- I'm going to help," you really do have to manage the emotional side more than even the numbers sometimes.

Chad Taylor 12:56

There was actually a great study that, which, you know, we used to get little flyers on it all the time, but it said the more you looked at your portfolio, the worse your return was. And so people who were looking at their account daily, their returns were worse than the people who looked at their accounts on a yearly basis. And, and that's why I think a lot of times 401ks do better than people's individual accounts, because they don't really look at the 401ks. But on their individual accounts that they have available to them on their phone or whatever it is, they look at it all the time, and they try to micromanage it because, hey, the market today is down, you know, 1%, right? And so do I need to make any changes? And they might sell or, or trade. But yeah, it, the, it is... You know, the more you look at the portfolio, chances are the worse your returns are gonna be.

Laura 13:35

That's actually really interesting. I haven't heard that before. It tracks with human behavior, it tracks with what I see with my clients all the time. And it also tracks with why I hate Acorns so much. I think that's the psychology of why I'm like, we don't need to squirrel away 27 cents a day. That's not going to help us. Right. But and they're also in there and they're trying to, buy this part of this stock and, they're trying to manipulate it. And I'm like, we're not trying to manipulate our money. We're trying to live our life and have- Yeah something for the future.

Chad Taylor 14:04

Right.

Laura 14:06

How much of your day-to-day job is creating a strategy for people versus helping them, stick with said strategy?

Chad Taylor 14:16

You know, that's a tough question because, I'm gonna say it depends on the day.

Laura 14:20

Okay

Chad Taylor 14:21

And the reason why I say that is because, we've got an investment team with our company where we look at the strategies, right?

Laura 14:26

Mm.

Chad Taylor 14:26

We're not necessarily looking at those strategies every day 'cause there's no reason to change them every day. And for the most part, you know, we're kind of looking at them. And I- I log in in the morning, I see what I'm, looking at. I kind of see where the numbers are, and if our allocation's out of alignment, you know, might have to make some changes. But we're not really not doing that much every day. Kind of goes back to the thing, if I'm looking at the investments every day, I'm probably micromanaging it too much, and that's not what we wanna do. My job for the most part during the day is, is reviewing with clients their current portfolios and their current situation. Now, if the market had been, selling off for several weeks and we're down 10, 15%, then my job becomes more behavioral, right? But for normal markets, today I had a call this morning, and it was more about this, these clients who retired, they're living off their income, and, they're just looking at their portfolio saying, "Okay, how do I get from where I'm at to the next 15, 20 years?" And, and their withdrawal rate's high, right? And so we've got to try to manage that distribution of the portfolio 'cause we're gonna spend it down over the next 15 years. And so our call w- with them was looking at their current expenses, what we're taking from the portfolio, and then looking at the withdrawal rate, where are we gonna take that, those funds from. And so it's more strategizing like that most of the time than it is going into, like, keeping people in the portfolio. I think a lot of that too is my clients have been with me for 20, 25 years, and they just know we're not gonna overreact to the markets. And market's down 500 points today, I really don't care. I'm not gonna make changes to their account because of that. But again, if it was multiple days like that, then we get into more of the behavioral stuff 'cause clients then start getting nervous.

Laura 15:56

The next question I have for you, it really is more for me. It's a selfish question, so I hope that my, listeners are okay with that. Are there mistakes that you see people making five to 10 years out of retirement that we should be addressing five to 10 years out as opposed to, "Hey, I'm retiring today," and like now it's a big problem?

Chad Taylor 16:19

I mean, I wouldn't say there's mistakes, but there's, there's some- Some things you have to watch out for, right?

Laura 16:24

Okay.

Chad Taylor 16:24

Your plan should be in place by ten years out. Okay? When you're accumulating, you know, you're young, you're accumulating, do you need a financial plan? You do, but it's not gonna be that important at that age, 'cause everything's really going for growth, right? We're trying to build up that portfolio. When we're young thinking about retirement, we're just thinking about, what kind of numbers do I wanna see? Like, how much income would I like to see when I re- when I retire? How much can I take out of the portfolio? And we're just kinda shooting for that target, but it's not really, you know, you're not really doing a full plan. When you're getting ten years out, now we're at a point where we're like, "Okay, now we really know what our numbers are gonna look like. Do I need, you know, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a, a year of income when I retire to replace my current income that I'm receiving?" If that's the case, then I kinda know what that target number is that we're looking for, and are we on track to get to that number? And so we wanna see at ten years, how close are we to the number we're shooting for? Are we above it, are we way below it, and what changes do we make at that time period? 'Cause now at ten years, we have enough time to recalculate where we're at, right? Do we need to save more? Do we need to work a couple years longer, right? So we can start making those changes. Then about five years out, we really need to get this plan in place because, in five years we know that we're gonna need X amount of dollars to live off of, and I need a certain amount in the portfolio to generate that. But I also need to make sure my allocation's correct. And so at five years out, we need to start changing the allocation to start preparing from going-- excuse me, from going from accumulation, where we're saving money, to now distribution. And so I might need more money in the fixed income portfolio, 'cause I'm gonna start living off of that when I get to my, my, my retirement date. And so where I think a lot of people have issues when it comes to that is, you know, we kinda build out the plan, but if you don't know what your number is, are you being too aggressive, right? So are you being too aggressive and you're gonna pl- retire in five years, you didn't change your portfolio, now we're two, three years out and the market crashes. Market crashes, and now I don't have my number because I just lost thirty percent of my portfolio with the market crash. And how long is it gonna take for that market to recover? So now, you know, my number was okay, market crashes, and now in two years I'm gonna retire, I'm probably not gonna get back to my number and I might have to work an extra three, four years. And so I was too aggressive going into my retirement number, right? But then the opposite true-- is true, too. You know, "Oh my God, I'm gonna retire. I gotta be really conservative." now I'm too conservative and I'm not growing enough. I'm not gonna hit my number. And so that's where a planner can sit down with you and say, "Okay, here's our number. Here's our sweet spot return we need to shoot for, so we don't need to be too aggressive because we don't need to get that type of return." Or the opposite is they're like, you know, "This is what number we need. We can't be in cash and CDs. We're not gonna get to our number, so we need to be a little more aggressive with the portfolio." And figuring those things out, putting it together in the plan, and then really targeting your risk toler-- not your risk tolerance, really the risk allocation you have to get to your numbers is what I'd say is the biggest mistake people make, is not knowing that.

Laura 19:13

The reason that's a selfish question is my husband's retiring in April- Okay from his current career. He's gonna have to work more. Yeah. Like, there's going to be another 10 years or so of work that we're planning anyway. And so selfishly I'm like, "All right. What do I need to be thinking about today that I can adjust and move forward?" But also that brings me to another really good question. At what point does somebody stop DIY-ing their investments and they need to reach out to somebody like you?

Chad Taylor 19:34

I don't think there's anything wrong with DIY, right? I think as long as you like doing this, and you have time to do it, and you have the basic understanding of planning, right? I think it's fine to do it yourself. It's gonna save you money versus hiring somebody like myself. The problem is, is a lot of times we don't know what we don't know, and people are doing this themselves, they think they're doing the right thing, but they don't really understand planning, they don't really under-understand investments and, and they're going down this path that's gonna, that's gonna hurt them. If you don't have a really good understanding of, of planning and distribution of, distribution strategies, you really need to get an advisor to help you out because, Just give you an example. I, I had one client come in, a new client come in, gosh, it was last month. So, and we're talking, I'm like, "Well, just so you know, your portfolio is just not very diversified. You know, we need to start building this out and getting you a little more diversified." And they're like, "What do you mean I'm not diversified? I've got, fifteen different holdings." And I'm like, "Well, yeah, this is Vanguard tech, this is QQQ." And so of those fifteen holdings, fif- I think it was thirty-five or forty percent was in direct tech indexes. You're not diversified then. And so this person, was doing it themselves, and they've done great because the tech market's been so strong, but they thought they were being diversified because they had fifteen different investments and, and they really weren't. And so a person like that, if they're doing their planning themselves, you know, they can get hurt really bad because they don't really understand that, what they're doing, even though it's been successful for the past five years, when that market turns, you really don't have any diversification to protect you when the tech market crashes. And so I, I think if you build up to enough of a portfolio where you're really thinking about retiring and you don't really understand like diversification, allocation strategies and how to take money out of the account, you really need to bring somebody in. And, and my job, it's gonna cost you, depending on the size of your portfolio, probably between thirty to sixty basis points more per year. Call it half percent more per year, to work with somebody like myself than doing it yourself. But if I can't earn that from you, for, for you by protecting you from your allocation not being correct, teaching you how to take proper dis-distribution strategies. You know, do we blend the taxable accounts and the IRA money to save you on taxes? Do we have your plan correct to figure out what your allocation should look like to, to provide you income for the rest of your life? If I can't earn that fifty to sixty basis points, then I'm not doing my job. And it's worth it for somebody to do that, you know, to save them from themselves. Vanguard did a study it was probably 10, 15 years ago, saying the value advice from an advisor equals about 3 to 3.5% per year. Okay? Now, I don't think it's that way every year. You know, they're including a lot of, like, distribution strategies with taxes. They're including, properly managing the allocation, properly managing diversification. They're also including, like, estate planning and things like that. Well, you're not doing all that stuff every year. But their own study said that an advisor provides, on average, about 3 to 3.5% per year of savings for the client, above and beyond their cost. So... And that's from Vanguard.

Laura 22:31

I think that's really spot on, because you also have the added advantage that you're not emotionally invested in what the money does. So you're able to see it from an outside perspective, that some people, you know, "It's my money, it's my retirement, it's my future," we are rightly very focused and emotionally invested- whereas you're able to separate yourself, say, "Well, here's hard facts"-

Chad Taylor 22:52

Yep

Laura 22:53

and then help that way.

Chad Taylor 22:54

I mean, that goes back to the behavioral side of managing money, right? It's not a lot of times managing money, it's managing behaviors. And, or going back to checking your account too often, right? Because if we're really emotionally invested, it's like, "Oh my God, I just lost, you know, $5,000 today. I need to make a change." Well, we know that's not the right thing to do, but emotionally, I wanna protect myself from losing $5,000 tomorrow.

Laura 23:13

When you think about those people that are actively investing, and they're building, what do you think a good mix of things look like, and how can a family, use their wealth well when we're in a situation of it's not just about accumulation, and when we're in a season of our family's growing- Right our wealth is growing, but we are not solely focused on that, but we wanna use our wealth well, what might that look like?

Chad Taylor 23:47

Are you talking about like, like wealth wells like in, uh, charities and things of that nature, or wealth wells and like making it grow for you?

Laura 23:55

Well, I think it's interesting that charities was the first thing that you thought of, so I think that's the direction I would wanna ask that question.

Chad Taylor 24:01

Well, I think once, everybody's different in this, right? And everybody's got their own view on what charity is and charity work. Um, but for most of my clients, that have done well for themselves and they know their retirement's on track and they have extra funds that they have available, they start charitable, accounts. Either through a donor advice fund, which is you put money into an account and you get a tax deduction for it and you can give to charities as you wish, right? Other clients with a little bit more wealth have built charitable foundations, and they, they create a board and, and, usually their family's involved because they wanna teach their family about giving strategies, to charities. And so the kids will be in part of the board that they have for the, um, foundation. And they'll get, do a meeting each year and say, "Okay, you know, what are the charities we wanna support this year?" And they work on those charities. And then also, for, uh, planning strategies, donating to charities is a great, uh, strategy to, to reduce your taxable bill. So when clients sell a business or they in- they receive a lump sum of money that's gonna be taxable, one of the first things we look at, are you charitably inclined? if so, let's put some of this money in a charitable account and, you know, there's several different vehicles that are out there to save you money on your taxes. 'Cause they'd rather give the money to charity than to the government.

Laura 25:08

Mm. That is such an interesting strategy that I have not thought of. And so thank you for bringing that here and sharing that. Because we, oftentimes when we're thinking about wealth, it's about us and the next generation that we have in our immediate family. But the fact that you also have, and the government has set up this, as a possibility to be able to give to others as opposed to give back to the federal government, I think that's, I think that's really cool. And the fact that you n- you know, guess what, me as a DIY-er, I'm not gonna think of that as a strategy. Right. So that's, that's absolutely amazing.

Chad Taylor 25:41

Yeah. I think other clients, that's their goal, right? But they gotta take care of themselves first. It's like anything else. If you're not on track and you're, you know, struggling to get your savings account up or your investment account, in where your direction is going, you know, you gotta take care of yourself first. And then once you build that up, then you can start thinking about, 'Cause now you, yourself, you take care of yourself, now I can start giving to others.

Laura 26:01

I really appreciate that, 'cause that's giving me something new to think about and, and dream about and decide, what my family could do one day. 'Cause that's really cool. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for your knowledge and what you shared. I know that the Legacy Builders here are going to, they're gonna learn something, 'cause I learned something, so they're definitely gonna learn something today too. But Chad, I have one final question for you.

Chad Taylor 26:23

Sure.

Laura 26:23

Well, first of all, where can people find you if they wanna reach out to you? 'Cause that's, that's more important than my last question.

Chad Taylor 26:29

Okay. Well, my website is seapointwealth.com, and it's sea like the ocean, S-E-A-P-O-I-N-T wealth.com. And then, uh, that has, you know, information about our company. It has information about our advisors and our team and our strategies and our philosophy. Um, so that's a great place to start if they want to find out more information about us. And then my email is chad@seapointwealth.com. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions anybody has as well too.

Laura 26:55

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Well, the last question I have for you is when everything is said and done- What do you want your legacy to be? What is the legacy you're gonna leave?

Chad Taylor 27:07

Well, I think, for me, I've got four kids, and so I wanna leave a legacy for them, because, living in California is, is tough, and and I wanna make sure they're taken care of. That's the first thing is, you know, my kinda goal is, okay, I wanna build up my wealth and, and legacy to leave them. Potentially, my oldest boy wants to maybe be in this business, so leave him a legacy of the company I've created. Uh, but then also create a, um, enough wealth for them that they're able to keep growing and building on that wealth and to be able to take care of themselves. I wanna make sure that legacy, though, is, is not just giving them, kinda like my buddy I talked about earlier is I want them to respect it, right? I didn't grow up with money, and so I want them to understand that you have to work hard for what you have to get. So even though they're gonna get this inheritance, I want them to, you know, appreciate it, right? So hopefully, creating a legacy where my kids are responsible and are doing the right thing is probably number one. But then the second one is charity I think, we've done well for ourselves, and I like giving back to people. You know, we give every month to different foundations. But, one of, I think one of the best things I love doing is around Christmas time, you know, one of the, the clubs we belong to, they have a Christmas tree, and, we have the kids go pick stars out, and the stars has a kid and what they're looking for. And we go and have the kids pick out the toys and deliver it. And, being able to give that to somebody who doesn't have as much, I think is, is great, and it, it's good for you, and it's good for your family. And, and so I think, you know, building legacy for my family and then be able to do more charitable stuff is my goal.

Laura 28:29

All right. That's it for this week, legacy builders. Go reach out to Chad if you have any questions. He said that he is more than happy to answer those for you, and I know that you will get the information that you were seeking. Go out and make a difference.