How does your view on taxes change when you see them as a tool for growth rather than a hurdle? This episode of The People Dividend Podcast dives into the practicalities of financial planning, taxes, and the crucial role of human capital in achieving business success and personal wealth. Host Mike Horne talks with Sugey Piedra, an experienced tax preparer and enrolled agent, who co-founded Prominence Business and Wealth Management. 

Sugey shares her journey from learning financial management in an immigrant family to advising business owners on proactive financial strategies. Her approach to finances and taxes is straightforward: make it less intimidating and more accessible for everyone. She believes in transforming the fear of taxes into a strategy for creating wealth.

The conversation covers common misconceptions about taxes and the IRS, with Sugey offering clear insights into how she guides her clients. She highlights the importance of strategic financial planning over reactive measures. Sugey's personal story, starting with managing her family's finances due to language barriers and a lack of financial literacy, illustrates her early interest in financial planning and taxes.

They also discuss real estate investment as a method for building wealth, explaining how even small investments can grow significantly. The importance of financial literacy is a key topic, focusing on why people often avoid financial planning and how changing mindsets can improve financial health. Sugey emphasizes the value of finding reliable advisors and taking charge of one's financial planning.

This episode offers a mix of personal experiences and professional advice, encouraging listeners to look at their finances from a fresh point of view

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“We all fear looking at creating budgets or creating, um, you know, looking at where's our money really going. And so I'm here to tell you shouldn't be that way. If we want to control the outcome, then we have to plan. We have to be more proactive. And so if you want to turn your finances around and start creating really real wealth, people say, well, you start to budget, right? You start to pay off debt and all that. But I think that budget and debt have this ugly taste to it, right? So again, it goes back to those ugly emotions that are tied to these words. And for me, it's like, no, go make more money, right? Go get more money so we can buy assets that continue to grow assets and that continue to grow wealth for us to create generational wealth or have a better retirement, something along those lines, whatever your goals are, let's just make sure that your finances are lined up to meet and match those goals.” ( 08:02 | Sugey Piedra)

“You can't hand accountability off to someone else. You've got to take accountability. And what I've learned in life, I've learned as an entrepreneur and being in the corporate world just as you were is that partners are really helpful. People who will collaborate with you, who will do more than the busy work, who will strategize with you. And that's a great value that you're bringing in your business.” ( 39:34 | Mike Horne)

“Emotional health, physical health, intellectual health, and then financial well-being is a way of taking care of yourself about surviving, not only taking care of yourself, but creating the legacy for your children, for those who are important to you.” ( 16:23 | Mike Horne)

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