For many business owners, one of the biggest missed wealth opportunities may already be sitting inside the business. Technology upgrades, software implementation, equipment, and operational improvements.

These are the kinds of investments owners are already making to grow, modernize, and stay competitive. But in many cases, they may not just be expenses or deductions. They may create R&D tax credits.

A deduction lowers taxable income. A credit can reduce taxes dollar for dollar. For an owner with meaningful income, that is not a small accounting detail. It is capital that can stay inside the system, be redeployed, invested, protected, or used to build long-term personal wealth.

Wealth does not only leak through bad investments. It also leaks through taxes that were never strategically addressed, retirement income plans that rely too heavily on average returns, and capital that leaves the system before it ever has the chance to compound.

The question is not simply how much money you make, how much you save, or whether the market performs over time. It is how much capital you actually keep, how intelligently that capital is structured, and whether your wealth plan can hold up when taxes, volatility, timing, and life events collide.

Derick Van Ness is the founder of Big Life Financial, where he helps business owners turn business income into personal freedom, long-term security, and legacy through advanced tax and financial strategies. In this episode, he breaks down why R&D tax credits are not just for laboratories, tech companies, or large corporations.

We also talk about the retirement problem many investors underestimate: not whether markets go up over time, but what happens when you need income during a down year and are forced to sell impaired assets. Derick walks through how volatility buffers can help protect income planning when timing, markets, and withdrawals collide.

About the Guest

Derick Van Ness is the founder of Big Life Financial, where he helps business owners turn business income into personal freedom, long-term security, and legacy through advanced tax and financial strategies. Derick specializes in working with small business owners, including dentists, chiropractors, auto shop owners, and other service-based entrepreneurs who are earning well but may not yet have the systems in place to turn income into lasting wealth. His work focuses on helping owners reduce unnecessary tax leakage, uncover overlooked opportunities, and build strategies that allow more capital to stay productive. Over the course of his career, Derick has worked with more than 2,500 businesses across the U.S., identifying strategies many owners never see and helping them create stronger financial outcomes. His perspective is especially useful for business owners who want to move beyond simply making money in the business and start using the business as a vehicle for personal freedom, wealth preservation, and legacy. Get an R&D tax credit estimate: https://biglifefinancial.com/money-school-credits

Learn more about Big Life Financial: https://biglifefinancial.com/

About Your Host

From pro-snowboarder to money mogul, Chris Naugle has dedicated his life to being America's #1 Money Mentor. With a core belief that success is built not by the resources you have, but by how resourceful you can be. Chris has built and owned 19 companies, with his businesses being featured in Forbes, ABC, House Hunters, and his very own HGTV pilot in 2018. He is the founder of The Money School™ and Money Mentor for The Money Multiplier.

His success also includes managing tens of millions of dollars in assets in the financial services and advisory industry and in real estate transactions. As an innovator and visionary in wealth-building and real estate, he empowers entrepreneurs, business owners, and real estate investors with the knowledge of how money works.

Chris is also a nationally recognized speaker, author, and podcast host. He has spoken to and taught over ten thousand Americans, delivering the financial knowledge that fuels lasting freedom.

Resources

Private Money Guide: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/book-podcast

Wealth Wednesday Webinar: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/wednesday-webinar-podcast

Mapping out the Millionaire Mystery: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/newbook-podcast

Most investors think real estate performance comes down to the asset. At the high-net-worth level, the more important conversation is often about control.

Because a deal is not just a building, a market, or a projected return. It is an operating system. Who manages the property? Who controls leasing, maintenance, marketing, resident communication, and costs at the asset level? Who can make decisions quickly when the market tightens, and the assumptions in the original deck no longer hold?

That is where real estate investing starts to look very different.

A lot of investors were comfortable allocating capital during the easy-money years because deals looked strong, liquidity was flowing, and exits felt predictable. But in a tighter market, the difference between passive ownership and true operating control becomes much more obvious.

In this episode of Money School Elite, I sit down with Michael Pouliot of Carbon Real Estate Investments to talk about workforce housing, vertical integration, AI, capital raising, and what real estate operators need to get right in the current cycle.

Michael brings a rare combination of Wall Street training, real estate operating experience, and long-term ownership thinking. This is not a conversation about chasing yield or finding the next hot deal. It is about how serious investors should evaluate structure, execution, risk, and time horizon before they put capital to work.

About the Guest

Michael Pouliot is the CIO of Carbon Real Estate Investments, where he helps acquire and operate workforce apartment communities across the Southeast, with a focus on 100–300 unit B/C-class properties in secondary markets where institutional capital rarely competes. Michael brings a rare combination of Wall Street training and hands-on real estate operating experience. As a CFA and CAIA charterholder, he spent his early career analyzing distressed assets for Blackstone, Merrill Lynch, and notable family offices, as well as allocating capital for J.P. Morgan's Private Bank. Over the past 15 years, he has built institutional-grade underwriting and operational systems for middle-market multifamily investments. That combination of analytical rigor and operating discipline has helped generate 20%+ IRRs across 15+ repositioned assets, more than 3,000 units, and over $75 million in equity successfully deployed and managed. At Carbon, Michael and his team focus on acquiring underperforming workforce apartment communities in Sunbelt secondary markets. They create value through vertical integration, professional management, capital-efficient renovations, and disciplined operations.

Website: investwithcarbon.com

Podcast: Deal Flow

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

About Your Host

From pro-snowboarder to money mogul, Chris Naugle has dedicated his life to being America's #1 Money Mentor. With a core belief that success is built not by the resources you have, but by how resourceful you can be. Chris has built and owned 19 companies, with his businesses being featured in Forbes, ABC, House Hunters, and his very own HGTV pilot in 2018. He is the founder of The Money School™ and Money Mentor for The Money Multiplier.

His success also includes managing tens of millions of dollars in assets in the financial services and advisory industry and in real estate transactions. As an innovator and visionary in wealth-building and real estate, he empowers entrepreneurs, business owners, and real estate investors with the knowledge of how money works.

Chris is also a nationally recognized speaker, author, and podcast host. He has spoken to and taught over ten thousand Americans, delivering the financial knowledge that fuels lasting freedom.

Resources

Private Money Guide: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/book-podcast

Wealth Wednesday Webinar: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/wednesday-webinar-podcast

Mapping out the Millionaire Mystery: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/newbook-podcast

Most people think franchising is about income replacement. At the high-net-worth level, the real conversation is about enterprise value.

Because the operators who approach franchising seriously are not just trying to buy themselves a business. They are thinking about cash flow, unit economics, operational infrastructure, EBITDA growth, private equity demand, and whether the business can eventually become attractive to a larger buyer.

And once you understand that, the way you evaluate franchising starts to change.

Most franchise buyers don't miss the opportunity because they fail to recognize a good brand. They miss it because they evaluate the opportunity too narrowly. They look at the concept, the customer demand, and the upfront cost, but they do not always understand how to vet the system, read the disclosure data, identify red flags, or think through the exit before they get in.

In this episode of Money School Elite, I sit down with Scott Jones of Franchise Guide Group to unpack how serious operators and high-net-worth investors should think about franchising as a wealth-building vehicle.

Scott has owned 10 franchises himself, advised operators for more than 20 years, and worked across the franchisee, franchisor, and supplier sides of the industry. And in this conversation, he breaks down how to evaluate franchising through the lens of diligence, capital efficiency, scale, cash flow, and private equity exit potential.

About the Guest

Scott Jones is the founder of Franchise Guide Group, where he helps high-achieving professionals, business owners, executives, and franchise operators evaluate franchise opportunities that align with their experience, goals, and long-term vision. With more than 30 years of business experience, Scott has worked as a CEO, franchise executive, entrepreneur, and multi-unit, multi-brand franchisee. He has helped hundreds of people explore franchising as a path to income diversification, career transition, business ownership, and greater personal freedom.

Through Franchise Guide Group, Scott brings a practical, operator-level perspective to the franchise selection process, helping clients understand which opportunities fit their background, interests, capital, and desired outcomes.

For Money School Elite listeners, Scott created a dedicated page where you can take the quiz, learn more, and schedule a call: https://connect.franchiseguidegroup.com/ms.
You can also follow Scott on Instagram: @‌franchiseguidegroup.

About Your Host

From pro-snowboarder to money mogul, Chris Naugle has dedicated his life to being America's #1 Money Mentor. With a core belief that success is built not by the resources you have, but by how resourceful you can be. Chris has built and owned 19 companies, with his businesses being featured in Forbes, ABC, House Hunters, and his very own HGTV pilot in 2018. He is the founder of The Money School™ and Money Mentor for The Money Multiplier.

His success also includes managing tens of millions of dollars in assets in the financial services and advisory industry and in real estate transactions. As an innovator and visionary in wealth-building and real estate, he empowers entrepreneurs, business owners, and real estate investors with the knowledge of how money works.

Chris is also a nationally recognized speaker, author, and podcast host. He has spoken to and taught over ten thousand Americans, delivering the financial knowledge that fuels lasting freedom.

Resources

Private Money Guide: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/book-podcast

Wealth Wednesday Webinar: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/wednesday-webinar-podcast

Mapping out the Millionaire Mystery: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/newbook-podcast