Your income is the engine to your financial picture. There are several aspects related to your income that will impact your financial picture:

• The amount of income received.
• The tax paid on this income.
• The timing of when this income is received.
• The degree to which this income could be shared or split with others today, or in the future.
• The source of the income: different sources of income are taxed in different ways.
• The security of each source of income: is this income secure and predictable?
• The consistency of each source of income: does income from this source change or fluctuate throughout the year?

When you understand your income picture, you are then able to determine how best to retain this income. When you retain as much income as possible, you are then able to use this income on those things that are most important to you today, and in the future. The ideal outcome occurs when there is consistency between your personal values, financial goals and the way you deploy your hard earned income.

To build more wealth you must first retain more income. This is what we call an “income first” approach. By this we mean, it does not matter what you have, it only matters what you keep. By ignoring the “income first” approach, you are potentially allowing the great killers of wealth to win the game.

Our philosophy is built on the importance of retaining more income. When you retain more income you can do more things. Isn’t this what life is really all about?

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