Join host Steven Pesavento as he delves into the world of tax-saving strategies and wealth building with guest Amanda Han, a highly experienced CPA specializing in real estate investments. Discover the key tips and insights that everyday investors can use to save on taxes and maximize their path towards financial freedom. From Amanda's personal journey as a third-generation real estate investor to her expertise in leveraging the tax code, this episode provides valuable knowledge and actionable advice for listeners.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
Interested in connecting with other like-minded individuals? Then join our VonFinch Private Capital Network. Learn more at http://www.vonfinch.com/invest.
About our Guest:
Amanda Han is a CPA specializing in tax planning and real estate investments. With a background in accounting and experience working with wealthy individuals, she has extensive knowledge of tax codes and strategies that can benefit everyday investors. Amanda is passionate about helping others navigate the tax landscape and maximize their wealth-building opportunities through real estate.
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00;00;25;24 - 00;00;49;09
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the Name Your Number show presented by the Investor Mindset. We're on a mission to create financial freedom for over a million investors. And when you name your number, the number that you want to earn passively every month that creates your ultimate quality of life, then I believe you've achieved real freedom. Now, let's get into the show. Today, I'm excited to have Amanda Han in the studio. How are you doing today, Amanda?
00;00;50;01 - 00;00;52;10
Amanda Han
I'm doing good, Steven. Thank you so much for having me.
00;00;52;25 - 00;01;43;17
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I'm excited to get into it with you. Your wife's published author through bigger Package talking about tax, your phenomenal CPA. You happen to be a third generation real estate investor. And you know, you have both seen it growing up. You've gone the other path and then you've jumped back into real estate investing yourself. So interested to kind of hear a little bit about your path towards financial freedom. And we're going to get into some of the great tips and strategies that listeners can use when it comes to saving on their taxes and really maximizing that path towards financial freedom. So before we get into all of that, I want to start off on a personal note by looking back at earlier in your life, what events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
00;01;43;27 - 00;01;47;13
Steven Pesavento
And how is that played a role on your money or investing journey?
00;01;49;06 - 00;02;17;07
Amanda Han
Interesting. It looks like you've done a little research on me, but about me being a third generation of real estate investors, I think, you know, growing by around my parents and my grandparents were entrepreneurs who also invested a lot in real estate, and then my parents did as well. I think that has shaped me tremendously. You know, I, I although I was taught to go to school, get good grades, get a good job.
00;02;17;07 - 00;02;46;24
Amanda Han
And what job is more steady than being an accountant. Right. It is a pretty good job security. So even though that was kind of the path I was led down, I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. And I think it comes from growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and just kind of always looking at ways to to build a business on the real estate side is really interesting because I grew up actually in the condo complex that my grandparents invested in.
00;02;46;24 - 00;03;03;08
Amanda Han
So I was always my cousin and I were like the landlord's grandkids. My grandparents are very hands on, like fixing the toilet and doing all that stuff. And for me, I was always like, I'm not going to do real estate. You know what? I'm an office job. I'm going to have pretty nails. I'm not doing any of that landlord.
00;03;03;08 - 00;03;17;07
Amanda Han
It was something I really didn't want to do. And like you said, fast forward now years later. I love real estate, but I've taken my real estate investing in a completely different way than how my parents and my grandparents did when I was growing up.
00;03;18;08 - 00;03;41;17
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, I can I can imagine if you're growing up, you're living in the apartment complex, you're seeing all of the hard work that they're putting into it. You're thinking to yourself, Hey, maybe this isn't the path that I want to be on. Maybe I don't want to be involved in real estate because I think most people correct or incorrectly think that real estate means you got to be the one doing all the work.
00;03;42;12 - 00;04;03;03
Steven Pesavento
So talk to me a little bit about when you grow up, you know, the parents of entrepreneurs. How do you think that impacted where you're at today? Because you went the traditional route, get a job, you know, go to school, get a job, work for a four on K and a gold watch. And then somewhere along that line you broke off.
00;04;03;15 - 00;04;14;19
Steven Pesavento
You obviously started your own firm, your investing. How did that early experience with your parents entrepreneurial vibes kind of play into the life that you're living today?
00;04;15;08 - 00;04;33;16
Amanda Han
Yeah, it's funny because, you know, I think most of our listeners probably have read Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad work, right? Was one that was rich. One was for I think in my life I had the same, but I just had one the same dad, the same parents. It was like they were living that, you know, entrepreneur, investor lifestyle.
00;04;33;16 - 00;04;52;27
Amanda Han
But they wanted me to kind of go the opposite direction. So, you know, really, I went the traditional route, got my accounting degree, got my CPA license, went to work for one of the big four international firms. And I just happened to end up in the real estate specialty group. And, you know, so my job was really to help really wealthy people save on taxes.
00;04;53;06 - 00;05;21;27
Amanda Han
And it wasn't until, you know, my husband and I read Robert's book when we were like, wow, it's interesting, you know, why not me? Why can't we also do that ourselves? And I think it's really hard for people to imagine, like, you're a CPA, you look at numbers, you see it all the time. But it was years of of being a practicing CPA until I realized what that all meant and why that would be a possible lifestyle for me as well.
00;05;22;11 - 00;05;42;24
Steven Pesavento
Mm hmm. And so when you're working on these wealthy people's taxes, you're diving in and you're looking at all the different tax codes are playing a role. What were some of the things or what are some of the things that people who are wealthy are using in the tax code that most of the working class or middle class just don't even know about?
00;05;44;01 - 00;06;12;14
Amanda Han
Oh, my gosh. It's so interesting because, you know, I think the really wealthy people, their CPA, is part of their team, like their core team, where you always have your attorney, you have your CPA, oftentimes like a lender helping you to to use leverage to to your advantage. And I think just the whole concept of having those people on your team, most everyday investors are just people who even have high W-2 income.
00;06;12;20 - 00;06;28;05
Amanda Han
Don't think from that perspective. So when my husband and I started out on our own, there was a point when we said, you know, we we love real estate. We we want real estate to be our own portfolio and wealth building tool, right? We don't want to just help other people save taxes on real estate. We also want to do it for ourselves.
00;06;28;15 - 00;06;53;12
Amanda Han
We started going to networking events, conferences to learn about how to invest the real estate because I knew how to do taxes were real estate people. But at the time I didn't know how to invest in real estate. And we quickly became aware that there was a huge need for everyday investors because they just don't have the resources, they don't have the knowledge on how to use tax codes to our advantage to save on taxes.
00;06;53;12 - 00;07;21;02
Amanda Han
So some of the things when you hear people talk about, you know, the tax code, there are secrets for the wealthy people. These are really not secrets. It's readily available out there. And in fact, many investors use it. Whether you're active or just in a syndication. I just like our ability to use leverage to build wealth and also create tax benefits through depreciation and all that good stuff, or being able to sell real estate and not pay taxes through a 1031 exchange.
00;07;21;02 - 00;07;34;11
Amanda Han
So again, these are not really secrets of the wealthy. It's just really important for everyday investors to understand how these work and apply it to us, as you know, at a lower dollar amount level, basically.
00;07;34;26 - 00;08;04;02
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, Well, it's interesting because, you know, our society, the traditional mindset, go to school, get a job, work for a fortune. K They don't really teach you the tax code. They don't really teach you about money. They don't teach you how to go and maximize the dollars that you actually keep. And so what the wealthy know that the middle and working class don't is really how to leverage that treasure map, which is the tax code in order to be able to save a lot of money on their taxes and keep more of that money.
00;08;04;02 - 00;08;27;02
Steven Pesavento
And you know, a big part of that is owning a business, because as a W2, you have much more limited number of options of of tax savings because government wants to incentivize business ownership. But when you are a W-2 employee, what are some of those things that you can do that can actually lead you to starting to take advantage of of the tax code?
00;08;27;03 - 00;08;39;29
Steven Pesavento
You mentioned 1031 exchange, you mentioned depreciation. Both of those are real estate related. What else and how does that play a role in creating actual tax savings? I think there's a lot of confusion about this.
00;08;40;26 - 00;09;00;19
Amanda Han
Yeah. I mean, I think there's two different ways to look at it for know, well, I guess every investor is going to be a little bit different, right? You have different profiles in terms of how much money you make, what are the different, you know, where the money is coming from. So an investor who also has a business has a very different tax profile instead of strategies.
00;09;00;19 - 00;09;26;13
Amanda Han
As an investor who just has a high W-2 job and doing real estate on the side, right. What you hear oftentimes CPAs talk about, especially for high income earners who are passive investors, meaning they're not out there, you know, getting properties and rehabbing them. They're just possibly investing, whether it's a turnkey deal or into a syndication deal. A lot of times CPAs will say, well, you don't get any tax benefits, right, because you're just passive.
00;09;26;13 - 00;09;52;04
Amanda Han
There's no benefit for you to invest in real estate. And that's really a very limited view in looking at financial planning and wealth building, because really what that CPA is saying is, hey, you might have created this tax losses through depreciation and write offs, but you're not using it to offset your W-2 income because you're still working full time, although that's a a true statement.
00;09;52;19 - 00;10;15;16
Amanda Han
I would make the argument that you are saving taxes because now you have made additional cash flow an appreciation on this real estate investment without paying taxes on that additional income. Right. So if I was making $500,000 but I'm making $600,000, then my taxes haven't gone up. Why Certainly have done better and gotten some tax benefits from it.
00;10;15;27 - 00;10;25;03
Amanda Han
So I think it's important to look at the picture holistically instead of just a tunnel vision, like, okay, W-2 income not being reduced, therefore no tax benefit.
00;10;25;26 - 00;10;53;03
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So what you're really saying is if you're hearing that from your tax professional, it's probably a good idea to start looking at building that team out with people who understand some of these types of strategies that you're talking about. It's not that they're wrong, it's just that maybe that's not their specialty. They might not deal with people every day who specifically are experts in understanding how to use some of these advanced planning strategies.
00;10;54;11 - 00;11;16;27
Steven Pesavento
So when somebody is looking to build their team and they're looking for a great CPA, I've got a lot of great questions that I usually ask. I'd love to hear. What do you think are some of the things that people should bring up when they're talking to a CPA to understand if they are a good fit for helping them, you know, navigate this this treasure map of the the the that the IRS has laid out for us.
00;11;17;17 - 00;11;43;07
Amanda Han
Yeah. I mean, you know, you always want to have a CPA who is well versed in your industry. So whatever your industry may be, you know, for today we're talking about real estate investors, right? And so to find a CPA that works with real estate investors, you just want to make sure you ask the right questions. The common question people ask is, do you work with real estate investors?
00;11;44;01 - 00;12;07;28
Amanda Han
Ten times out of ten basically say, Yes, I work with real estate investors. Why? Because maybe I have one person who is renting out their home and therefore I'm a CPA for real estate investor. So that's not a very powerful question. I think a really good question to ask a CPA is, you know, what are your successful investor clients doing in real estate right now and what are some strategies that you're working with them on?
00;12;08;23 - 00;12;40;05
Amanda Han
I think that's a really powerful question for two reasons. One, it allows them to showcase what strategies that they actually use. I just let them talk. What kind of stuff are you doing? But second, because you phrased it in, you know, what are your successful clients doing, it allows you to kind of gauge what they determine is a successful quite so their successful client is Mary Jane, who owns two duplexes that maybe their level of complexity is here, but if they're successful, client is someone who's syndicating multimillion dollar deals.
00;12;40;05 - 00;12;43;05
Amanda Han
Now their sophistication is probably much higher, right?
00;12;43;28 - 00;13;10;02
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that that's a really that's a really good way way to look at it because, you know, they, of course, want to win your business, but it's all based on a perspective. You know, they're telling the truth when they say they're working with real estate investors, if they're working with somebody who owns two duplexes. But the person that you really want to be working with is the person who is managing the the the tax planning and and wealth generation.
00;13;10;07 - 00;13;32;24
Steven Pesavento
For somebody who owns 100 passive investments, if you are the person who's got five or ten and you're working your way up, you ought to be working with somebody who has that experience and understanding at a much higher level so that they can be able to pass down some of those strategies that people were saving millions or tens of millions of dollars on their taxes can pass down to you, or you can say 50 or 100 or maybe even millions yourself.
00;13;33;25 - 00;14;02;15
Amanda Han
Sometimes I talk to clients and, you know, we do a strategy call and afterwards they're like, Oh my gosh, you know, my favorite part of the call wasn't even just about the taxes. It was about just learning what some of your other clients are doing, right? And so that's what we talk about. Your team on the tax side, on the legal side, if they're experts in your business, that's, you know, your ability to leverage their knowledge and insight to see beyond just kind of, you know, this small area of taxes.
00;14;02;15 - 00;14;26;28
Amanda Han
Right. And seeing, okay, how are other people how are there other clients building their business, building their portfolio? I think that's something that the wealthy people really know how to do. You know, as a real estate investor, as we always talk about the concept of leverage, typically we're talking about leveraging money from the bank investors. But really it's so important to also leverage the expertise of your team members as well.
00;14;27;19 - 00;15;07;08
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. And when you've got a really great CPA or really great consulting firm who's helping you do that planning, it really puts you in a different position. I mean, through time. I mean, there's so many of these rules, but understanding the Agusta rule, understanding the ability to use home office, understanding the ability to do tax loss harvesting, understanding the difference between tax credits and other types of tax savings, it puts you in a position where that you can start making these decisions because, you know, most people don't know that when you invest into drilling for oil and gas, for example, that you can write off your W-2 income across those tax credits that actually come
00;15;07;08 - 00;15;33;19
Steven Pesavento
back if you're investing in the right type of deal. And so by having really a great team around you, somebody like Amanda and other great CPAs are really experienced in this space, you can start being able to have an eye open to the type of investments or the types of business activity or the types of actions that you can do as a a money making money earning person so that you can actually keep more of that money.
00;15;33;19 - 00;15;52;06
Steven Pesavento
Because again, it's not about not paying taxes. Yes, that's the end result that happens. But the government wants to incentivize a certain type of behavior. They want people to be able to pull natural resources out of the ground so our economy can grow. They want people to be investing and owning residential real estate so we have a place for people to live.
00;15;52;06 - 00;16;10;03
Steven Pesavento
They want people to be owning businesses so they can be employing and driving the economy forward. And so when we follow those incentives, it puts us in a position where not only can we earn more money and save more money on taxes, but we can actually start really contributing towards the greater economy and the society that we're building.
00;16;10;23 - 00;16;34;14
Amanda Han
Yeah, I mean, you know, you brought up a great point about the whole concept of incentives, right? Because, you know, things like you mentioned, oil drilling is a big one. The whole renewable energy. Right. We're seeing a lot of, you know, solar credits. A lot of those have an interplay with real estate. Right. So if you're into real estate, you're putting solar on your rental properties, you get depreciation as well as tax credit.
00;16;35;01 - 00;16;59;20
Amanda Han
But it's really about being able to plan ahead so that you're doing the right things during the year. I think the biggest issue we see sometimes with investors or just taxpayers in general is that they're thinking about taxes after the fact. So after I have already sold my property or after I have already made a bunch of money in stocks, and then you say, well, how am I going to save taxes for last year?
00;16;59;29 - 00;17;24;21
Amanda Han
It oftentimes that's too little, too late. So just being aware and speaking with your team before you implement a transaction, those are times when you have, you know, maybe three or four different ways to optimize that transaction. So you can pay little to no tax after a transaction is closed. Oftentimes there's very few things that you can do to still reduce your taxes.
00;17;25;06 - 00;17;49;13
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's such a really, really good point. And this is so important to understand how taxes play a role in your path towards creating and reaching financial freedom. And so, Amanda, I'd love to talk a little bit about your path. I know you yourself, you worked in a career. You then started a business. You've invested into a number of different things.
00;17;49;29 - 00;17;57;15
Steven Pesavento
Talk to me about where you're at along that path towards reaching your version of financial freedom and really living that dream life vision.
00;17;58;15 - 00;18;17;21
Amanda Han
Yeah, it's funny because as you know, we were chatting just before the show about, you know, where I feel like I am on the financial freedom path. And for me, I think the moment that I really felt like I reached it was I was talking to a friend of mine, actually a girlfriend I have known since elementary school.
00;18;17;21 - 00;18;35;05
Amanda Han
And she's like, you know, she works in private equity and she's like, yeah, I think I'm going to here's my plan to kind of stop working. And two years and and I should say, you know, well, why don't you know, why don't you stop working? Why you? I feel like you probably could, based on everything I know you're doing.
00;18;35;23 - 00;18;57;02
Amanda Han
And I thought to myself, Yeah, why don't I stop working? And I realize, well, you know, I could work financially speaking, I could stop working, but, you know, doing what I do and helping people with planning is really my passion. And I, for me, that mindset is what I realized. Okay, this is when I've reached my financial freedom, is knowing that I have the ability to stop working.
00;18;57;10 - 00;19;22;29
Amanda Han
But you're just, you know, you're choosing what you want to do with your day to day life. Right? And I think it was a really great feeling because, you know, I haven't asked myself that question. Previous to that, I was like, why? Why, when and why am I still working? So I think it's really important for a lot of our clients to, you know, we have clients who are, you know, physicians or surgeons that, you know, we talk about passive income investing in real estate.
00;19;23;04 - 00;19;39;03
Amanda Han
Yes, they love real estate. They love the passive income. But when it comes down to it and I you know, for me, I have to ask the question, right? Will you stop working? Because we need to be a real estate professional and get all these great things. And then when they really think about it, a lot of times they say, I am living my passion right now.
00;19;39;03 - 00;19;53;00
Amanda Han
Being a surgeon, I love saving lives. It doesn't mean I don't love real estate. I love real estate, have love the cash flow, the tax benefit, but, you know, for those people, I think the same thing. They've reached financial freedom. It's just they're choosing to continue doing what they're passionate about.
00;19;53;13 - 00;20;14;00
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, this is one of the biggest misconceptions. I think that you're pointing out about financial freedom is this thought that, Oh well, you're only financially free when you stop working. But what it really comes down to is when you sit down and you map out what your dream life looks like, what it looks like today, what it looks like in five years, ten years, 20 years, the timeline doesn't matter.
00;20;14;00 - 00;20;33;10
Steven Pesavento
But what's more important is understanding what is that progression of the life that you want to live, whether it is, you know, your retiring so you can spend more time with your kids and your family, but you want to be coaching games, whether you want to be traveling, whether you want to be building a mission based business like I'm building.
00;20;33;10 - 00;21;01;22
Steven Pesavento
And it sounds like you're very passionate about what you're doing as well. And when you find something that you love and you're passionate about and you get so much fulfillment out of it other than just the money piece of it, it's interesting. It's kind of funny. The money just continues to come and flow. But when you actually attach that to naming your number and understanding what you need to earn, both actively to get there, but most importantly passively to be able to continue to stay in that place of truly being free.
00;21;01;28 - 00;21;22;18
Steven Pesavento
That's what I really believe. Financial freedom is all about. And I learned it the hard way. You know, I was grinding in my business, you know, flip 200 houses in two and a half years and had a realization when, you know, I lost somebody really close to me in my life, that life short and that I actually had a very large net worth on paper.
00;21;22;28 - 00;21;41;22
Steven Pesavento
But I wasn't liquid and I wasn't earning passive income even though I knew about it. I believe in it. And so that's really how name your number was born was I just recognized for myself that I needed to be clear on having one target, that passive income number that I was working towards and everything else around it kind of fuels that piece.
00;21;42;29 - 00;22;00;27
Steven Pesavento
So what I'm curious about for you is what are some of those tools that you've used to become financially free? I know your business owner. How have you taken that money that you've earned to then go and make investments into assets that keep paying you, you know, from now until the end of time?
00;22;01;15 - 00;22;31;15
Amanda Han
Yeah, until the end of time. I like that. You know, I think for my husband and I, we really use some of the same strategies that we work with clients on. So, you know, I mean, obviously our passion is on the, our tax firm working with investors nationwide on how to save taxes. And then but the income we make, you know as quickly as we can to diligently of course to place an into income performing assets.
00;22;31;15 - 00;22;50;09
Amanda Han
Our vehicle of choice happens to be real estate, of course. Right. That's why our firm works with real estate investors. So, yeah, it's whether it is the income from our business, we maximize our retirement accounts and the money in our retirement accounts. We also use that for real estate like a lot of our clients do through self-directed investing.
00;22;50;19 - 00;23;09;01
Amanda Han
So, you know, similar concepts that we talk to clients about. And what I see a lot and I I've experienced this myself too, so much. What you were saying is oftentimes we'll have a client come to us and say, Hey, you know, I really want to I want to stop working. I want to do real estate full time.
00;23;09;13 - 00;23;26;05
Amanda Han
And it's really great. It's kind of magical, right? You still have one spouse is a high income earner. The other person kind of stops working. They start to build their portfolio of properties, just small, single family duplexes here and there. We get all this great tax benefits and so a couple of years go by and now they have a larger portfolio, right?
00;23;26;05 - 00;24;00;28
Amanda Han
Because I have to, you know, convince them to keep buying and building. So we get the tax benefits, of course, building wealth. At some point, inevitably that person starts to feel like now they have a job, they have a job of operating their own rental portfolio. And this is where I really see passive investments, like, you know, the syndications, the fund, that what you're doing is really life changing for people because then they get to a place where, okay, now I'm comfortable with my real estate, I can get all the tax benefits, but I don't want to continue to buy ten, 12 properties every year.
00;24;01;07 - 00;24;25;24
Amanda Han
I can supplement all of that still passively, truly, passively, now through syndications. And that's kind of a similar concept that my husband and I have done to. You know, we have our own portfolios. We do as little as we can, but we also supplement that because we also, you know, we have kids, we have our business. We don't have a limited time to manage our own properties.
00;24;26;12 - 00;24;34;18
Amanda Han
So we supplement that through passive investing, you know, leveraging other people's time and expertise to really help build our wealth as well.
00;24;35;15 - 00;24;59;14
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, Well I think a lot of people and realizing that passive investing can be a really strong opportunity, a really strong path because you're not the one doing all the work, you're not the one going and fixing the toilet. As you said, your grandparents were doing. What do you think the trade off is? What do you think people what do you think people get by passive investing that they don't get through more active routes?
00;24;59;14 - 00;25;07;14
Steven Pesavento
And what do you think they give up in the process? And and that decision of deciding what's right for people at different points in their life.
00;25;08;08 - 00;25;26;17
Amanda Han
Yeah. And it's really different person to person. Obviously, what you give up when you do passive investing is the control, right? So usually with your, you know, a limited partner in a syndication, you don't really have a say in the day to day operation. My firing this management company, am I going to sell this property? Am I going to do a 1031 exchange?
00;25;26;17 - 00;25;53;03
Amanda Han
So you give up those kinds of decision making, which could also be a blessing, you know, for someone who's maybe a newer investor or just not as experience. So, for example, you know, I've invested in apartments in Texas. I don't know anything about the market there. And I you know, I can't make decisions on whether the management company is doing well or not, But I also don't want to buy because that's not the best use of my time and I'm not the best person to make that decision.
00;25;53;12 - 00;26;22;09
Amanda Han
So, you know, I think the benefit of that is, is that it takes a lot of burden off of you of of trying to do the day to day things and also being able to leverage not just the knowledge of the syndicators, but also their net worth in their network to. Right. It's the power of the collective. So collectively we've raised this amount of money and now we're able to buy that property that Amanda had on her own, like wasn't able to get.
00;26;23;00 - 00;26;41;26
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's it's so interesting because I started off in the single family world as well. And and there's a lot of benefit that you get when you're doing single family deals. I feel like I got an opportunity to learn a lot about real estate because I was doing a lot of it myself, although I was hiring great construction people.
00;26;42;07 - 00;27;21;02
Steven Pesavento
But what I also learned was that it is a full time job. I mean, I was spending so many hours working on these projects. And interestingly enough, when I actually look at what an investor earns and what I earn when I invest into syndications and funds, often times if I'm investing with the right team, if I'm investing with the people of insider knowledge and I have the ability to find insider deals and I can negotiate really good terms into those opportunities, I end up making more money doing that than if I was going to go try to buy a single family home in Denver and try to do some kind of, you know, brr or
00;27;21;02 - 00;27;41;08
Steven Pesavento
flip or something else on it. And when I look at the amount of time that I'm putting in, it's so much less. Now. Of course, I run a private equity firm and we do this and we have a great team that does this every day. But when I compare apples to apples, it's really not even comparable. You know, sometimes if you have no money, you don't have a lot of money.
00;27;41;08 - 00;27;58;17
Steven Pesavento
That can be a good reason to go more of the active route and start, you know, partnering with somebody and doing a couple of small deals on your own. But if you're somebody who has any kind of means and you can save some money and invest as long as you're investing with the right people, it's not about the deal.
00;27;58;17 - 00;28;04;26
Steven Pesavento
It's always about the people. I know you agree that's where really a lot of wealth, generation and success comes from.
00;28;05;22 - 00;28;31;11
Amanda Han
Yeah. And you know, just the scalability of it. All right. Like you said, for someone like me, you know, there's limited number of, of of my own rentals that I can handle at any given point in time based on limitations of just hours of the day. But other, you know, other things like syndications or other passive means of generating income, you can scale, right, Because it doesn't take any more of my time to do that.
00;28;31;11 - 00;28;49;13
Amanda Han
But I think you're right. It you know, whether that's a right plan for a specific investor really also depends on how much income they have to start with. And so for the newer investors, it's about middle generating that capital and then be able to deploy that in, you know, whatever type of asset class you decide makes the most sense.
00;28;50;01 - 00;29;08;05
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. If we pivot back to the tax conversation for a couple more questions before we wrap up, what I'm curious to hear from you is what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see investors coming in with when they start working with you and how can they avoid some of those?
00;29;09;25 - 00;29;38;29
Amanda Han
I think the biggest mistake I see people make is thinking that the person who filed their tax return last year is the same person who is doing planning for them for the upcoming year. I wish that were the case. I wish that was fact. But the reality is it just kind of doesn't work that way. So I think it's really important for everyone to take a step back and really ask themselves, you know, do I have a plan in place on how I'm going to minimize taxes?
00;29;39;22 - 00;29;59;04
Amanda Han
And if you can answer that question, then great. That means you're probably ahead of most investors that I mean, but if you if you can't answer that question, like, what is my plan, then really take the time to meet with your tax person and, you know, see if you could put a plan together. Right. It doesn't have to be an eight hour conversation.
00;29;59;04 - 00;30;14;13
Amanda Han
It could be, you know, a 30 minute call or one hour call and just talk to them. Hey, here's what I'm thinking of doing this year with respect to my job or my real estate or my business. What are some things that you think will be helpful for me to say tax and then just kind of let them take over that that conversation?
00;30;15;06 - 00;30;32;18
Amanda Han
Because one of those, you know, you never get it until you ask. And I think we need to get into the habit of asking for it, asking for the plan, asking for the strategy. And if your tax person is someone who doesn't offer that or is not specialized in real estate, then you can always seek out another firm to help you with the planning.
00;30;32;18 - 00;30;57;24
Amanda Han
We have a lot of clients that you know, they love their tax preparer, their tax preparers, maybe their father in law that he can't hire, but maybe father in law doesn't do real estate. And so so it's always okay to seek out specialist advice on that. I think the other common mistake that we see all the time is with respect to legal entities and this whole concept of I need to have an LLC to take tax deductions.
00;30;58;03 - 00;31;22;16
Amanda Han
So I always talk about this on my social media. I mean, anyone who will listen, I always tell them, you don't have to have an LLC to take tax write offs for, you know, like a mentorship program where you bought a book about how to save taxes. You can do that when you are a real estate investor. So that just means being a landlord, being a flipper, whether you have an LLC or not really doesn't impact your ability to take tax and deductions.
00;31;23;12 - 00;31;46;23
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, that's such a good point. And if anybody is looking for a great planner, absolutely. Reach out to Amanda Hahn. Shoot me a DM at Stephen Dipartimento on Instagram. I've got some great people that we work with. We're happy to pass that along as well. So Amanda, tell us, where can people find out more about you and what's the best way to get in touch?
00;31;48;10 - 00;32;11;20
Amanda Han
The best place to find us is on actually our firm website. It's Keystone CPA dot com. We have a lot of great free resources, one of which is a tax opportunity finder. People are always asking me like, Hey, how do I know if I'm overpaying in taxes? So we created a self-assessment tool where you can answer some questions and you'll get a score at the end in terms of what your risk profile is.
00;32;11;27 - 00;32;31;15
Amanda Han
And the great thing about that is as a result, you get to see what your opportunity areas are. You know, like, hey, I get really bad on the retirement investing side. My retirement money is has gone to crap. So maybe that's something I can talk with my advisor or I'm doing really bad on legal entity. Don't know what the heck I'm doing something and talk to my CPA about, right?
00;32;32;03 - 00;32;42;16
Amanda Han
So that's the best place to find me. And if you're looking for daily tax tips, I can most likely be found on Instagram. My handles. Amanda Hine, CPA.
00;32;43;12 - 00;33;01;05
Steven Pesavento
Amazing, amazing. The list is so much fun. And closing out on this final question, what's your advice for those who are listening, who are on that path towards creating their dream life vision to really live free financially? What advice would you leave them with when it comes to taxes, investing and just creating the life they want?
00;33;02;16 - 00;33;32;11
Amanda Han
I think just being proactive in what you do, you know, making sure you have a plan so you have an investing plan. Here's what I want to do active, passive, multifamily, you know, duplex. And then that plan will then be the roadmap to what your tax savings plan is going to be. So if you're someone who's going to flip 200 properties like Stephen, the strategies will be very different than someone who's plan is, Hey, I just want to do passive real estate for as long as I can.
00;33;32;19 - 00;33;39;00
Amanda Han
So having that investment plan first and then working out the corresponding tax plan associated with that.
00;33;39;19 - 00;33;50;28
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, I love that. Such great advice. Definitely follow Amanda on on Instagram and reach out if she can help. Appreciate you guys listening. Thanks so much for being on. Amanda and we'll see you all next episode.