Hey, Tom here.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a question for our next Wealth Workshop—it’s shaping up to be a great one.

We have three open spots at Fjell. If you’re looking for a new wealth advisor or curious how we apply everything you’ve learned from Tired & Rich, now’s your time.

Work with me 

This week, we’re tackling a key failure point for people in their peak wealth accumulation years (50s and 60s).

Let’s jump in.

Wealth Workshop - Taxes & Wealth Building

The tax code favors asset owners. If you don’t have a tax strategy, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

In this month’s Wealth Workshop on March 12th at 10am CT, I’ll break down how we guide high-net-worth families to use the tax code to their advantage—and how you can do the same.

We’ll cover what actually matters when it comes to taxes, building wealth, and retiring on time—no jargon, just real strategies you can use.

👉 Save Your Spot

See you there.

Don’t Make This Your Financial Death

We spend a lot of time discussing the external forces on your money: the economy, interest rates, and the latest trends (AI, government policy shifts, etc.).

I love that stuff. And your ability to invest wisely through these changes is critical.

But this week, I want to highlight a mistake I see far too often—one that quietly erodes wealth, limits flexibility, and makes retirement more stressful than it should be.

High fixed costs.

What are fixed costs?

The standard definition:

That’s a fine definition, but here’s how I define them:

If you know me personally, you know I am obsessed with freedom.

I want financial freedom, time freedom, freedom to think differently, freedom to do what I want, when I want it, with the people I love most.

And I want every person who knows me to experience more freedom in their life.

And I’ve foundthat fixed costs are like dead weights for people.

Freedom suckers.

They slow you down.

They take your ability to invest away.

They are financial commitments you’re locking yourself into for years to come.

And they can, left uncheck, create compounding financial problems.

A Key Component

Let’s talk about the most valuable companies in the world for a second to highlight the importance of low fixed costs.

I wrote about them two weeks ago, but I want to give you another angle.

Tech companies are some of the most valuable businesses in the world.

Why?

They largely have low fixed costs and high margins.

Here’s the worn out Silicon Valley playbook:

Spend a few million on development, invest in marketing to buy customers, give it a few years, and suddenly you’ve got a business doing millions a month—while keeping 50%+ in gross profits.

It doesn’t always work this way, but when it does, it’s like magic.

Investing nirvana.

Silicon Valley funds these businesses for a reason.

Business’s with low fixed costs have more freedom, attract amazing talent, and often times, win.

Meanwhile, business’s with poor cost structures go nowhere. They spin their wheels, work all year, for not much of anything.

Now, take a look at your financial life.

Is it structured like a high-margin software company?

Or are your fixed costs forcing you into a corner?

The World Is for Rent—And It’s Costing You

If you haven’t noticed, nothing is for sale anymore.

Music. TV. Coffee. Car Washes. Cooking.

Everything is a subscription.

And it can jack up your fixed costs.

Here’s the real rub though, marketers get you to buy the subscription, you make it a habit, and they raise the prices on you.

And they’ll raise the price faster than inflation, and probably faster than your investment account is growing.

Check out this screen shot I grabbed years ago (June 2020), to memorialize what I thought at the time was a brilliant move from a company I personally owned stock of.

It was none other than Google sharing the news that YouTube TV was going to be getting a whole lot more expensive, from $50 to $65 a month.

Brilliant business - with a simple email, millions of customers paid 30% more for the same thing.

What did I do?

Nothing, other than take a screenshot.

This was a brilliant move from Google, and a bad one for my pocket book.

While this happened years ago. These automatic price hikes are what is coming for you, me, and everyone else in this “everything is for rent” world we’re building in, not withstanding the already damaging effects of our generationally high inflation we’ve all experienced.

But the biggest fixed cost isn’t even your mortgage or a $14.99/month streaming service.

It’s your habits.

What you allow—or don’t allow—to happen with your income.

People with great spending habits end up with more money.

People with high fixed costs end up with stress.

The Solution: Better Habits that Reduce Fixed Costs.

Your future self doesn’t need a budget.

It needs options.

Three things for you this week:

Find Your Fixed Costs - Download your 2024 bank statements and go line by line, they’ll be hundreds of transactions, but find your fixed costs, find what’s waste, cut it, and either pay down debt or invest what you cut.

Save Your Spot – This upcoming Wealth Workshop on taxes is going to be great. March 12th at 10am. No fluff, no nonsense—just real, actionable insights so you can maximize your wealth building.

Work with Fjell Capital – If you're nearing retirement and unsure of your next steps, let’s change that. Book a complimentary discovery call and let’s strategize about your portfolio, analyze your net worth, optimize your cash flow, and build a financial plan that works for you. We currently have only three open spots for new clients in coming month.

Remember, compound wealth, not fixed costs.

See you next week,

Tom