Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy

Wade uses his annual ritual of winterizing his North Dakota property to frame how he thinks about financial preparation. He walks through three client conversations from the past week: a retiree using life insurance as a permission slip to spend, a client turning a 401(k) RMD into a tax-free legacy, and a couple weighing long-term care coverage, then makes the case for disability insurance. He closes by arguing that liquidity, held in a properly structured whole life policy, is what turns spring's opportunities into something you can actually use. Key Takeaways Preparing for financial "winter" means transferring risk you cannot absorb yourself, whether that is death, long-term care, or disability, to an insurance company. Life insurance can work as a permission slip, giving retirees the confidence to spend down other assets because a death benefit is already in place. A 401(k) is often the worst asset to leave your kids. Converting an RMD into a properly structured life insurance policy can turn taxable savings into a tax-free legacy. Long-term care and disability are two risks people underestimate until they, or someone they love, live through them. Liquidity is what separates chaos from opportunity. Without access to cash on your own terms, you cannot act when spring's opportunities show up. Links and Resources Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com Contact Wade: [email protected] Keywords financial liquidity, be your own banker, infinite banking concept, whole life insurance, cash value, guaranteed asset, death benefit, generational wealth, family legacy, tax-free wealth transfer, 401(k) required minimum distribution, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, income protection, retirement planning, financial preparation, dry powder, liquidity bucket, Wade Borth, Sage Wealth Strategy Episode Highlights [00:04:00 - 00:04:30] A retiree calls life insurance a "permission slip" to spend his retirement savings. [00:05:00 - 00:05:30] A client turns required 401(k) distributions into a tax-free inheritance for her kids. [00:05:30 - 00:06:00] Wade explains why a 401(k) can be the worst asset to leave behind. [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] A couple weighs a group long-term care policy against a better-qualified option. [00:08:00 - 00:08:30] Wade makes the case for disability insurance as income protection. [00:09:00 - 00:10:00] Why "cash is trash" misses the real value of liquidity. [00:10:00 - 00:10:30] Wade's line: the difference between chaos and opportunity is just liquidity. [00:11:00 - 00:11:30] Death is the one event guaranteed to happen, and the one we can fully prepare for.

Wade wraps up his review of The Richest Man in Babylon, covering chapters eight through the end. He pulls out lessons on taking responsibility for your circumstances, choosing a simple framework over more information or another product, and doing the work now so you're prepared when opportunity shows up. He closes with a reminder that you'll end up exactly where you're headed unless you change course. Key Takeaways Your circumstances don't decide who you become. Awareness, education, and action start with taking responsibility for your own choices. A product won't solve a mindset problem. A framework gives your decisions guardrails, and framework beats information every time. Clarity creates conviction, not complexity. A few simple tools you understand beat a table full of tools you don't. Opportunity looks like luck when you've done the work before the work. It takes time, money, and discipline. Align your direction with your destination. Small course corrections made early are easier than one big correction made late. Links and Resources Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com Contact Wade: [email protected] Keywords The Richest Man in Babylon, Richest Man in Babylon lessons, Richest Man in Babylon book review, financial freedom, infinite banking concept, be your own banker, The Path of Money, financial framework, daily burn rate, financial liquidity, dry powder, whole life insurance, cash value, generational wealth, financial discipline, take control of your money, Nelson Nash, Wade Borth, Sage Wealth Strategy, book club Episode Highlights [00:03:00 - 00:05:00] Wade explains the chapter eight lesson that circumstances don't decide who you become, and how awareness, education, and action got one man out of debt. [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] Wade asks whether you'll keep behaving like a slave to your circumstances or start acting like a free man, and why debt can be a form of servitude. [00:06:00 - 00:08:00] Wade explains why a product can't fix a mindset problem, and why following the crowd into something you don't fully understand carries risk. [00:08:00 - 00:10:00] Wade shows how to find the pattern behind your circumstances, from tracking where your money flows to knowing your daily burn rate and freedom number. [00:11:00 - 00:13:00] Wade uses the water bladder and the mountain guardrail to show why every financial plan needs a framework. [00:13:00 - 00:16:00] Wade explains why framework beats information and how The Path of Money brings clarity to your decisions. [00:16:00 - 00:18:00] Wade contrasts complexity with clarity, using a carpenter's tools to explain why simple, properly structured whole life gives you a protected base. [00:18:00 - 00:21:00] Wade unpacks chapter ten, The Luckiest Man in Babylon, and why luck is really opportunity meeting preparation. [00:24:00 - 00:26:00] Wade uses a flight from Fargo to Dallas to show why course corrections matter when your direction and destination don't line up. [00:26:00 - 00:28:00] Wade closes with building before you need it and staying flexible enough that a change in the market or the economy doesn't break your plan.

Wade opens a book study on The Richest Man in Babylon, a nearly hundred-year-old book his agency is reading together, and walks through the first half's core lessons on saving, protecting capital, and controlling your own banking function. He explains why high income rarely equals real financial control, why guarding against loss matters more than chasing returns, and how the ancient walls of Babylon still describe what it takes to build wealth that lasts. Key Takeaways Most people retain only about 5% of what they've earned over the last ten years, proof that high income alone doesn't build wealth. Pay yourself first and build your pool of capital before chasing investments. Savings is what creates liquidity and control. Guard your money from loss. Avoiding big losses matters more than chasing a high average rate of return. Someone is always the banker in your life. Ask who owns the capital, who controls the terms, and who receives the interest. Liquidity turns life's inevitable events into opportunities instead of disasters, and wealth that lasts requires passing down wisdom, not just dollars. Links and Resources Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com Contact Wade: [email protected] Keywords The Richest Man in Babylon, infinite banking concept, be your own banker, pay yourself first, liquidity, dry powder, guaranteed asset, whole life insurance, cash value, family bank, family banking, generational wealth, financial liquidity, wealth building principles, Wade Borth, Sage Wealth Strategy, saving money, capital protection, financial discipline, book study Episode Highlights [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade reveals that people control only about 5% of what they've earned over the last decade. [00:03:00 - 00:04:00] Wade unpacks "part of all you earn is yours to keep" and why income isn't really yours until it stops moving. [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Wade compares becoming a capital provider, like Warren Buffett and major insurers, to becoming your own source of liquidity. [00:09:00 - 00:10:00] Wade breaks down the math showing how a 50 percent loss requires a 100 percent gain just to break even. [00:12:00 - 00:13:00] Wade tells the story of Babylon's walls and how the city grew rich by protecting what it had built. [00:14:00 - 00:15:00] Wade introduces Mathon the gold lender and asks who owns the capital, controls the terms, and receives the interest in your life. [00:17:00 - 00:18:00] Wade explains why the goddess of good luck favors those who prepared with liquidity long before opportunity showed up. [00:19:00 - 00:20:00] Wade recalls his father's life insurance being canceled six months before he died, and what that meant for the family. [00:20:00 - 00:22:00] Wade contrasts the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts to show why transferring wisdom matters as much as transferring dollars.

Wade opens up about the real reason he's in the life insurance business: providing liquidity at the time of death, and every day before it. He traces that mission back to 1981, when his father died suddenly and a banker's advice to drop an "expensive" life insurance policy left the family with no death benefit and no liquidity. A farm auction, a sale bill a family friend recently rediscovered, and a mother who never had time to grieve are the backdrop for a conversation about why every family needs a real answer to one question: do I have enough death benefit? Key Takeaways A banker convinced Wade's father to drop his life insurance policy months before he died in 1981, calling it too expensive, and the family was left with no death benefit and no liquidity. With no liquidity to cover the bank loan, the family had to hold a farm auction on September 25, 1981, selling off tractors, combines, and equipment to pay off what was owed. Wade's mother went to work as a school cook to support her two remaining sons at home, with no time to grieve her husband's death. A family friend recently sent Wade the original 1981 auction sale bill, which is what prompted this episode. Wade's mission comes down to one sentence: he helps families provide liquidity at the time of death, and then every day before that. Links and Resources Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com Contact Wade: [email protected] Keywords liquidity at the time of death, death benefit, whole life insurance, be your own banker, infinite banking concept, family legacy, generational wealth, family bank, family banking, guaranteed asset, cash value, policy loans, dry powder, liquidity bucket, income replacement, debt replacement, farm succession planning, life insurance for business owners, financial liquidity, Sage Wealth Strategy Episode Highlights [00:01:00 - 00:02:00] Wade describes the moment Pastor Hunter and his mother told him his father had died. [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade defines his real job: providing liquidity at the time of death, and every day before it. [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] Wade explains how a banker talked his father out of his life insurance policy months before he died. [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] The family sells the farm equipment to pay off the bank loan with zero liquidity to fall back on. [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Wade's mother takes a job as a school cook to support her two sons at home. [00:07:00 - 00:08:00] A family friend named Craig sends Wade the original 1981 auction sale bill. [00:11:00 - 00:12:00] Wade makes the case that everyone dies, so the only real question is what you do to prepare. [00:14:00 - 00:15:00] Wade recalls his mother saying she never had time to grieve or mourn.

Wade Borth marks the 200th episode of the podcast by bringing on Mike Brevik of Cyberdogz Marketing, the guest who first pushed him to hit record. Together they look back at what actually changed since episode one and look ahead to the next 100 episodes, where liquidity, preparedness, and adapting fast take center stage. Key Takeaways Stop waiting for the perfect version of anything. The episodes, and the decisions, you're most tempted to redo are often the ones that connect the most. Build consistency before you build an audience. Showing up week after week is what earns people's trust to hear the harder truths. Treat liquidity as preparation, not idle cash. As AI accelerates change, the families and businesses with accessible capital are the ones who can pivot instead of panic. Measure your own success against your own purpose, not against the biggest name in your industry. Get your financial sequence right before you add more tools. A solid liquidity foundation has to come before infinite banking or any other strategy. Links and Resources Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com Contact Wade: [email protected] Factum Financial: [email protected] Mike Brevik / Cyberdogz Marketing: cyberdogzmarketing.com Cyberdogz on Instagram: instagram.com/cyberdogzmarketing Mike Brevik on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelbrevik Keywords 200th episode, Wade Borth podcast, podcast milestone, infinite banking concept, be your own banker, generational wealth, financial liquidity, liquidity bucket, whole life insurance, cash value life insurance, Nelson Nash, financial preparedness, AI and personal finance, family legacy planning, Sage Wealth Strategy, Mike Brevik, Cyberdogz Marketing, financial sequence, dry powder, guaranteed asset Episode Highlights [00:01:00 - 00:03:00] Mike explains why almost everyone resists starting a podcast, and the moment it clicks that you already have plenty to say. [00:03:00 - 00:06:00] Wade reflects on the discomfort of listening to his earliest episodes and how podcasting forced him to bring clarity to his own thinking. [00:06:00 - 00:09:00] Why assuming your audience already knows what you know is the biggest mistake new podcasters, and new advisors, make. [00:09:00 - 00:11:00] Wade and Mike agree that chasing a perfect episode is the wrong goal. Push through and learn from the raw ones. [00:11:00 - 00:16:00] After 200 episodes, there are no surprises left. Wade explains why that vulnerability is actually a relief. [00:16:00 - 00:19:00] Wade's advice to his younger self: start sooner, be more consistent, and stop treating progress as a straight line. [00:21:00 - 00:22:00] Success doesn't mean becoming the next Joe Rogan. It means fulfilling the purpose you set out with. [00:22:00 - 00:25:00] Wade previews the next 100 episodes, shaped by the advice he'd give his own son heading into an AI-driven world. [00:25:00 - 00:30:00] Why the speed of change from AI makes liquidity and cash reserves more important than ever before. [00:34:00 - 00:38:00] Wade lays out the sequence he wants listeners to follow through the rest of 2026: savings first, then infinite banking. [00:43:00 - 00:51:00] Wade and Mike revisit five of the podcast's most requested episodes, from Cash Is King to Legacy Building.