Grow Money Business with Grant Bledsoe

It's no secret that the IRS is underfunded right now.  It takes most taxpayers months to receive refund checks, and most would rather go to the dentist than wait on hold to talk with the IRS.  Our guest this week is Tom Nally, who's recently launched Tax Now to help taxpayers and their professionals navigate this landscape.  The platform syncs up with the IRS database and simply notifies you when...

Mailbag question: "My husband and I are assembling our retirement plan and planning to relocate once I quit working.  We're trying to decide between Tennessee, Florida and Texas, since they're all states with lower tax and retirement lifestyle costs.  Which do you think is best?  The lists are all different."   Intro: Financial media love to create lists of the "best" and "lowest cost" states to r...

  Mailbag Question: "I recently met with an attorney to get my estate plan done.  They recommended that I create a living trust to hold some investments and my house.  Is that legitimate?  It sounds like an upsell better suited for very rich people."   Intro: This week on Grow Money Business we answer a listener questions about trusts and estate planning.  Our faithful listener spoke with an attor...

Early retirement is a popular goal for many, but actually making it happen can be challenging.  One major obstacle is the early withdrawal penalty imposed to distributions from IRAs & 401ks before 59 ½ years of age. This week on the show we answer a listener question about how to navigate this landscape and a few possible workarounds.  We also cover whether index investing has impacted the markets...

One question we get a lot is why we'd ever want to invest in countries other than the U.S.  The U.S. stock market has done far better than other countries recently.  It's the biggest national market in the world.  The U.S. has the strongest, most resilient economy.  And the U.S. dollar is the world's reserve currency.  Why would we ever want to invest anywhere else?  This week on the show we cover...

Mailbag Questions: 1)         "I'm a small business owner, and have a SEP-IRA that I'd contributed to annually until a few years ago.  Then things got tight during COVID and I took a break from making contributions.  Now business is turning around again.  I've been watching the bitcoin ETFs and am wondering if this is a good investment once I start putting money into my plan again."  

This week we cover a listener question about how to handle an inheritance of $850,000.  Jason recently dropped the question in our mailbag after receiving the inheritance unexpectedly.  He and his wife are in a stable financial situation and aren't sure what to do next.  Grant shares his thoughts on what the couple should do. We also review an article in The Atlantic covering whether monetary poli...

Our guest on the show this week is Jeremy Harbour.  Jeremy has been involved in the M&A market across the globe for decades.  He's the founder and CEO of the Unity Group, a boutique international mergers & acquisitions firm.  He also runs the Harbour Club, a professional network focused on teaching M&A best practices to entrepreneurs.  Jeremy shares with us the do's and don'ts and buying and selli...

We dedicated this week's episode to another mailbag question from our listeners related to tax withholdings.   Here in the U.S., most people set some money aside throughout the year from their income and/or estimated tax payments, to be put toward their income tax bill for the year.   Then they cross their fingers when it comes time to file their return, hoping that they don't owe any more than wh...

Michelle Seiler Tucker is back on the show this week to discuss how higher interest rates have impacted the market climate for business sales.  Michelle is the best selling author of Exit Rich and has been in the M&A business for over 20 years (selling over 1,000 business over that time frame).  She shares a few basics of what business owners can do now to set themselves up for future success, as...

This week was relatively slow in market news…..until the Trump verdict came out.  Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts brought against him in the hush money trial, which throws more uncertainty into upcoming election cycle.  The financial world changed on Tuesday as well, as the stock settlement cycle was shortened from T+2 to T+1.  We cover what all this means for you, how the markets r...

We've covered a lot of technical investment concepts on the show over the last couple years.  Since it's sometimes helpful to take a step back and focus on the core foundational concepts, this week's episode covers the three golden rules of investing we should all be trying to use.  We also cover Nvidia's stock split and the new world of financial scammers. Resources sherwood.news/tech/investigati...

A few weeks ago I had someone ask whether it was possible to live off of dividend income alone in retirement.  This gentleman had saved up a nice chunk of money and was currently invested 100% in stocks.  He was eligible for Social Security benefits, and was intent on never selling any of his shares in retirement. Instead, he wanted to live off the dividends his portfolio produced to pay his expen...

We're trying a new format on the show!  Starting this week each episode of Grow Money Business will include a few consistent sections.  We'll answer mailbag questions.  We'll interview guests.  We'll spend a couple minutes reviewing the markets.  And we'll review news articles you should be paying attention to.  Enjoy! Resources: etf.com/sections/news/fidelity-adds-surcharge-etf-platform wsj.com/p...

The general goal of investing is to buy low and sell high sometime in the future.  So how should we handle it when the markets make new all time highs?  Should we wait for the market to fall before investing new money?  Should we invest it all now to catch upward momentum?  The reality is that markets make new all time highs pretty frequently.  Since our economy continues to grow, the size of the...

Tony Matheson joins us on the show this week.  Tony worked as a wholesaler in the investment industry for 20 years before departing to launch a financial advisory firm, Slalom Wealth.  Wholesaling is a sector of the industry we haven't discussed much on the podcast to date, and Tony joins us to share the inside scoop.  We cover how wholesalers work with and influence financial advisory offices, wh...

I'm asked pretty frequently what I think of the market, and what themes I'm paying attention to.  While I don't think there's any one theme, event, or headline that should impact your investment allocation, there are certainly some themes I'm tracking more than others.  In this episode I cover the top four I'm paying attention to right now: the "Magnificent 7" and the impact on market returns, com...

Vince Shorb joins us this week to discuss the state of financial literacy.  Vince is the founder and CEO of the National Financial Educators Council, which provides financial literacy resources to educators and organizations nationwide.  He shares why basic financial concepts are not being taught in public schools across America, as well as what parents need to teach their kids about money to set...

When politicians draft tax reform bills I usually try not to pay attention until they become law, since so few actually do.  This tax reform bill is a little different.  The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 is a bipartisan bill that got through the Ways & Means Committee with a vote of 40-3.  And since some of the tax changes would be retroactive to 2023, I figured it warra...

This week's guest on the show is Eric Mason. Eric is a CFO, an economist, and a TEDx speaker. He is the current Chief Financial Officer for Quincy, Massachusetts. where he provides direct analysis of all economic and financial forecasting to the Chief Elected Official. He has an academic background in economics and has worked extensively in the field, with a focus on analytics and public policy. H...

Annuities have earned a bad reputation within the financial community over the years, but why is that? When might an annuity actually make sense in retirement? And how can you tell whether they're a good fit for you? We've covered annuities a bit on the show over the years but haven't described the fact pattern where an annuity might actually make some sense. In this episode we cover the fundament...

This week our guest on the show is Michael Koeppel. Michael is the managing director and founder of Lakelet Advisory Group. In his roles as a board director, C-level leader, and business transformation strategist, he has helped companies in the manufacturing, technology, healthcare device, and financial industries achieve sustainable growth and turnarounds. Michael joins us to share his knowledge...

Welcome to another mailbag episode. It's not a surprise that the value of bond funds has gone down with the high interest rates in the past couple of years. But is it a good enough reason to dump your bond funds over it? In this mailbag questions episode, we discuss PIMCO Total Return Instl.., the risks of dumping your bond funds, debt payments, and more. [03.34] Total return fund – Starting the c...

This week's episode of Grow Money Business features Ray Drew. Ray is a top-producing SBA 7a Lender, podcast host, and SMB investor. He is currently working as the Managing SBA Business Development Officer at Fund-Ex Solutions Group. Throughout his career, Drew has focused on assisting small business owners with the complexities of small business administration loans. It is his responsibility to as...

This week on Grow Money Business we are talking about stock concentration and the Magnificent Seven. Last year, there was a group of seven companies that produced a huge portion of the S&P 500's approximately 20% annual return. Join us as we dive into why these seven companies out-performed, arguments for why they may or may not continue to out-perform, comparisons for this type of stock concentra...