Financial Independence: A Better Perspective

Lance Edwards & Randy Luebke's Financial Independence: A Better Perspective podcast

Episode 24: Do I Wait to Buy Real Estate with Economic Uncertainty? 02/16/2023

Episode 24: Do I Wait to Buy Real Estate with Economic Uncertainty? Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of “How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments,” and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy talk about a perfect topic for a new year – mindset and what it takes to overcome doubts and procrastination and get started on achieving your long-range goals. Brief overview of this episode: We all know the real estate market is changing. In this episode, Lance and Randy share why these changes are creating a fantastic opportunity. However, the current market requires the investor to “be smart.” Learn tactics to “buy smartly” and discover why this is an optimal time to buy small apartments. Highlights from the interview: 02:09 What does buying “smartly” mean? 04:27 Lance states his exact phrasing to get seller financing in a deal. 06:10 Randy shares his perspective on buying real estate now. 08:25 Lance talks about adjustable-rate mortgages and their impact in today’s market. 09:27 Randy shares two “rules of thumb” when investing in real estate. 10:25 Lance discusses a CBRE chart of home values for the last 60 years and what this report says about buying real estate now. 13:35 Randy and Lance offer their opinions about mortgage rates. 14:45 Lance reveals the fundamentals of buying property smartly. 15:09 Randy and Lance talk about the win-win of seller financing. 18:10 Why buying and selling real estate is not just about price. 20:38 Lance reveals how to create forced appreciation. Resources: ● Explore to learn more about Lance's training and real estate investment opportunities. ● Sign up for Randy's newsletter at and learn about Randy's services and get his FREE “Financial Independence Toolkit” at If you want to learn how to earn a high return on real estate investments, go to to receive a FREE copy of Lance's best-selling book, “How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments.” /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/25954251

Episode 23: What Should You Do with Your Cash? 02/16/2023

Episode 23: What Should You Do with Your Cash? Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of “How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments,” and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy talk about a perfect topic for a new year – mindset and what it takes to overcome doubts and procrastination and get started on achieving your long-range goals. What you’ll learn in this episode: Investment options are in flux right now. Interest rates on typical investments have been at an all-time low for the last 12 years, and many people have their retirement funds in cash. Due to the fed raising interest rates on borrowed money, many investment options are improving -- in many cases dramatically. This trend may only last a year or so. To take advantage of the changing economic environment, check out this podcast. Highlights from the interview: 01:32 Are you sitting on cash with nowhere to put it? Lance reveals where he puts his money. 02:40 Cash is King! Randy explains why. 04:18 For the last 12 years, CDs have only been providing about a 0% interest rate. Is that changing? 04:59 The “yield curve” is defined. 07:55 Where can you get 4.5% interest in a safe investment in three months? Randy reveals! (hint: treasurydirect.gov) 15:56 While rates are higher now than they’ve been for CDs, are there disadvantages to investing in CDs? 17:25 Lance explains self-directed IRAs and elaborates on the pros and cons. 20:06 Randy expands on the benefits of self-directed IRAs. 24:22 Randy asks Lance if we are in a buyer’s or seller’s real estate market and segues to the next episode. Resources: · Go to to learn more about Lance and his investments. · Sign up for Randy’s newsletter at and learn about Randy’s services. · If you want to learn how to earn a high return on real estate investments, go to to receive a FREE copy of Lance’s best-selling book, How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments. Get Randy’s FREE “The Financial Independence Toolkit” at /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/25954149

Episode 22: The 4 D’s – How to Simplify Your Day to Do Less and Get More Done 02/16/2023

Episode 22: The 4 D’s – How to Simplify Your Day to Do Less and Get More Done Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of "How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments," and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy talk about a perfect topic for a new year – mindset and what it takes to overcome doubts and procrastination and get started on achieving your long-range goals. Brief overview of this episode: Most people's time is consumed by meaningless tasks, junk mail, and inappropriate use of their skills. Randy's secret to simplifying your life, making better use of your time, and being more effective is implementing the "4Ds." Highlights from the interview: 00:56 Lance asks Randy, "What is the first "D" in the "4Ds." Randy and Lance describe the hows and whys of the 4Ds: 01:05 D1 is "Don't do it!" 02:40 D2 is "Delegate it!" 05:08 D3 is "Do it now!" Randy says to use the 2-minute rule. Lance's requirement is "don't touch it twice." 07:00 D4 is "Delay it." Randy explains that this is not the same as procrastination. Instead, it is "purposeful delaying." 08:02 Lance summarizes the tactics described so far. 08:28 Lance adds an additional practice to simplify your day and be more productive. 09:20 Lance recommends a book, "Atomic Habits." He quotes, "We don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our habits." Resources: ● Recommended reading: "Atomic Habits," by James Clear to learn about habits and behavioral change. ● Buy Lance's upcoming book (launching on Amazon on March 1st), "Apartment Alchemy: 50 Ways Small Apartment Owners Can Boost Their Cash Flow and Wealth." 200% of the proceeds of this book are going to the Intrepid Hero's Fund when you purchase on Launch Day, Mar 1st. ● Go to to learn about this fantastic charity. ● Explore to learn more about Lance's training and real estate investment opportunities. ● Sign up for Randy's newsletter at and learn about Randy's services and get his FREE “Financial Independence Toolkit” at ● If you want to learn how to earn a high return on real estate investments, go to to receive a FREE copy of Lance's best-selling book, “How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments.” /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/25954083

Episode 21: Alternative Retirement Plans for Self-Employed Small Biz Owners Who Are Less Than 10 Years from Retirement 02/15/2023

Episode 21: Alternative Retirement Plans for Self-Employed Small Biz Owners Who Are Less Than 10 Years from Retirement Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of "How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments," and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy talk about a perfect topic for a new year – mindset and what it takes to overcome doubts and procrastination and get started on achieving your long-range goals. Brief overview of this episode: Your number one asset is your ability to earn an income. But what if life throws a curve ball at you that prevents you from working? What is your safety net? This episode illuminates why "safety nets" and "off-ramps" are imperative to the small entrepreneur. Lance and Randy explain how to forecast these and build them into your retirement plan, even if you are nearing retirement. While the episode focuses on the needs of entrepreneurs, it is also very relevant to W9 employees. Highlights from the interview: 00:51 Lance paints the predicament of a person ten years away from retirement without a solid retirement plan. 02:48 Randy introduces concepts of "Safety Nets" and "Off-Ramps." 03:40 Randy explains how to insure your income if you can no longer work. 06:35 Randy defines "off-ramps" and suggests how to plan for them in advance. 09:00 Lance asks Randy for clarification of the finer points of off-ramps. 10:18 They discuss the merits of buying investments like real estate. 10:45 Lance describes the dangers and limitations of "the addiction to the cash flow" and the benefits of having a "sellable asset." 14:50 Lance depicts how buying apartments is a robust catch-up plan for both a "safety net" and an "off-ramp." He expounds that you can do this without your own money. 17:00 Randy provides two recommendations to the question, "What is your best investment?" 18:08 Lance explains that the three available roles for people wanting to invest in small apartments are based on the "ROI vs. time" consideration. 21:10 Randy summarizes the options for "safety nets" and "off-ramps." 22:00 Lance expands on his summary of these concepts. Resources: ● Buy Lance's upcoming book (launching on Amazon on March 1st), "Apartment Alchemy: 50 Ways Small Apartment Owners Can Boost Their Cash Flow and Wealth." 200% of the proceeds of this book are going to the Intrepid Hero's Fund when you purchase on Launch Day, Mar 1st. ● Go to to learn about this fantastic charity. ● Explore to learn more about Lance's training and real estate investment opportunities. ● Sign up for Randy's newsletter at and learn about Randy's services and get his FREE “Financial Independence Toolkit” at ● If you want to learn how to earn a high return on real estate investments, go to to receive a FREE copy of Lance's best-selling book, “How to Make Big Money in Small Apartments.” /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/25939629

Episode 20: Seller Financing and Other Ways to Fund your Real Estate Investments 02/08/2021

Episode 19: Getting Started 02/08/2021

Episode 18: Good and Bad Debt from a Financial Planning Perspective 02/08/2021

Episode 17: Year-End Tax Savings for W-2 Employees and the Self-Employed 12/02/2020

Episode 16: The Tax Saving Logic Behind Roth IRAs 12/02/2020

Episode 15: The Three Buckets of Real Estate Investing 12/02/2020

Episode 14: Year End Planning and Reducing Your 2020 Tax Bill 10/07/2020

Episode 14: Year End Planning and Reducing Your 2020 Tax Bill Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of “How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments,” and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy recap some of the ideas presented in their previous podcast about Cost Segregation while going into more detail about how to benefit from the CARES Act. As we enter the fourth quarter of 2020, they also discuss practical strategies for year end planning and reducing our annual tax bill. What you’ll learn in this episode: *September 15, the day the episode was aired, was, as Randy says, “the day many small business owners got slapped in the face by the IRS because they. . .didn’t do tax planning from the year before.” *Speaking of late business tax return filings, Randy says owners can make a contribution to an IRA to create a deduction. If you’re self-employed and have no other employees, you can do a SEP. *Prompted by Lance to list a “pecking order of tools,” Randy says a good basic strategy is to “write all the checks you can, spend all the things you need to spend your money on before the end of the year – and you’re gonna push off receiving your income until the year after.” He suggests you prepay whatever you’re allowed to, including insurance premiums and a new vehicle if you need one. He adds, “Get that money spent in 2020 to create all the expenses you can to reduce your capital, cash flow or your income, and then push all that capital and future income out into 2021.” *While saying every individual should ask specifics from their CPA, Randy estimates that you can prepay office rent for one or two months to claim it for the future. “You wouldn’t be able to deduct it,” he says. “The idea is to be able to claim the deduction when you write the check.” *The CARES act, passed in March, allows those who create a net operating loss this year to go back to previous years where they paid taxes and apply that loss towards that income and get the IRS to write a check back to you. Lance confirms, “Whatever your net operating loss is for this year, you can apply it against when you have positive gains up to five years back and get that back at whatever tax rate you were paying.” Randy adds, “You have until you file your tax returns next year to take a cost segregation study from this year and reduce your taxes next year. You have a year on this cost segregation to take advantage of the deductions for 2020.” *Whether you’re a self-employed one-person shop or one with mom, pop and kids, simple things like 401(k)s and SEPs can work to your advantage. The idea is to be able to take pretax dollars and put them into one of these retirement plans to create a tax deduction – and then defer the earnings on those investments over time and pay taxes on them in the future. /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/16314785

Episode 13: Cost Segregation 10/07/2020

Episode 13: Cost Segregation Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of “How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments,” and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy interview Todd Strumpfer, Senior Account Executive with Cost Segregation Services. An expert with over ten years of experience, Todd discusses Cost Segregation and how it connects and builds upon standard depreciation. The three also discuss how the CARE Acts plays into it during this time of COVID-19. What you’ll learn in this episode: *Cost segregation got its start in the late 90’s. Opening the door to its general use were cases brought by several businesses arguing that parts of their properties wore out fast than 39 years for commercial properties and 27 ½ years for residential rental properties (arbitrary chosen figures). Since Todd started I the business a decade ago, more and more CPAs and tax professionals are recommending it to clients. Jim Shrever, the Founder of Cost Segregation Services, was a pioneer in figuring out how to make this work to the advantage of smaller building owners. *The IRS allows for depreciation as buildings and inside assets like carpet wear out. If you don’t do cost segregation, you’re doing straight line depreciation. Because of the court cases, the IRS has allowed for building owners to depreciate different items that are part of the property more rapidly. *A cost segregation study involves going in and getting photos of the property, doing a walkthrough, gathering appraisals and different information. Working with analysts, they do what’s called an engineering-based cost segregation, which is different from accounting based. Engineering based analysis goes deep, with up to 70 building components being analyzed to depreciate a building more rapidly. *Todd’s company works with a client’s tax professional to apply the results to their tax returns. They have a depreciation schedule going forward that includes much more than land and improvements or land and building. Every component is broken into their correct appreciable life. “They don’t get more depreciation expense, they just get it a lot sooner,” he says. “It’s a non-cash expense.” /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/16314662

Episode 12: Self-Directing Your Retirement Options 08/28/2020

Episode 12: Self-Directing Your Retirement Options Financial Independence: A Better Perspective is a new podcast hosted by Lance Edwards, bestselling author of “How To Make Big Money in Small Apartments,” and Randy Luebke, Founder of Lifetime Paradigm, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping clients to and through their retirement by fixing broken retirement plans, putting them back on track and making up for both lost time and insufficient savings. In this episode, Lance and Randy have a lively exchange about self-directing retirement options. In their view, a retirement account is like a shoebox with multiple investments you can choose and manage yourself – but there are three exceptions. They discuss the value of having a third- party custodian and the advantages of setting up an LLC to direct investments. What you’ll learn in this episode: *If you try to talk about self-directing to typical stockbrokers at large firms like Merrill Lynch or Raymond James, they will generally try to sell you their products versus you being able to tell them what you want to invest in. *In Randy’s view, a retirement account is like a shoebox. Whether it’s a 401(k), SEP or IRA, it has a set of rules dictated by the IRS. But inside that box, you can put almost anything you want, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Bitcoin and notes. He mentions three exceptions to this. In general, true self direction means choosing and managing your own investments. *Lance saysthat his broker at a major house told him he could not use his self-directed IRA to invest in real estate – when he knew he could. The problem was this broker had no real estate to sell him. Randy says most likely if you ask your stockbroker about real estate investing, they’ll suggest a REIT: a Real Estate Investment Trust. *Randy refers to Tony Robbins’ book Unshakeable and mentions the fact that out of some 300,000 licensed investment advisors in the U.S., only one percent of those are independent Investment Advisor Representatives (IAR). The others can only sell you products their licenses and firms allow them to. They work inside a system that precludes them from giving the “kind of advice these folks are really looking for.” *Randy mentions the three limitations on the “shoebox” investments. You cannot own collectibles inside a retirement plan, or shares of an S corporation or life insurance. You can own shares of a C corporation, partnerships and LLCs, but not S corps. Some broker dealers will use these and say “things are complicated” to dissuade clients from self-directing. *Lance and Randy discuss the concept of self-dealing, using the example of a rental property to illustrate. If your IRA or retirement plan owns the property, you can’t use it yourself. But if your IRA buys a rental property and you hire a management company to manage it, that’s an allowable transaction. Adding potential value to it by managing it yourself could get you in trouble. Prohibited self-dealing transactions are any that give you direct benefit or usage. *Because banks can only sell you the financial products they have for sale, Randy suggests getting the shoebox out of the bank and move it to a third-party custodian that allows for self-directed investments. The custodian’s role is “holding your shoebox.” You’re still making all the decisions as to what that money will be used for. *Once you find the custodian and pay an upfront fee, you transfer your money from your old bank to the new bank and you can start seeking investments – real estate, gold, silver, etc. If you don’t start using the money to invest, you may have accomplished little while increasing your fees. Randy suggests buying interest in a Delaware Statutory Trust or TIC, because it’s basically a piece of real estate with tenants that is already being managed. *Lance agrees on the importance of finding “something simple and just put the money to work rather than pay fees to the custodial company and making zero percent.” Once you get your investment set up, you should open a self-directed account immediately. *Randy discusses the options that exist with an LLC. If you use your IRA for the down payment, closing costs, signing the purchase agreement and distributing the money to the escrow company, the custodian is going to charge you a fee. If you have a lot of activity, the fees add up, including every time you pay your property taxes and insurance. A better option is, instead of having your IRA buy that rental property, buy it with your LLC and your IRA will own your LLC. Randy calls that “checkbook control.” *The LLC you form has no value at first, but after you have your IRA purchase your LLC, it has all that capital. You don’t own the LLC, your IRA does. Then your LLC is going to buy the property and do the transactions. Everything comes and goes through your LLC checking account (rent deposits in, property taxes out). There’s no third party paying its expenses. It takes a little money to set up the LLC but it’s worth it for the freedom and overall savings it provides. Lance points out that you cannot write yourself a check out of that “checkbook LLC.” That is a prohibited transaction. Resources: (Randy’s website which has info on self-direction and many other topics) /episode/index/show/financialindependencerei/id/15798311