Cash is king in more ways than one and in the food & beverage industry, that is known all too well. There are many advantages to getting your day's wage in cash on a daily basis with the only real requirement of claiming 10% of gross sales as earned income or possibly being involved in a tip compliant environment like many casinos in Las Vegas. In most of my experience, this was advantageous from a tax perspective although that wasn’t always the case. Either way, this entry is written for you and how to extend that “Cash is King” theme beyond your working years.
It wasn’t until my early years in the financial industry that I truly realized just how awesome the income can be in the food & beverage world. I guess I’m mostly speaking to the front of the house and although a large portion of my heart always stayed in the kitchen, as a young person, I fell in love with the mystique of etiquette, service, and the tools that surround the ceremony that fine dining, wine, and craft cocktails are!
Many business owners that I interviewed over the years didn’t earn as much as bartenders or food and cocktail servers in my experience at the end of the year AND, many of them worked 60+ hour work weeks. So, in case you might be wondering if the grass is greener on the other side, what I can say is, it depends! What I can say with confidence is that you have a great ability to work about 30 hours a week to earn more than what many do working easily, twice as many.
What about retirement though? Many bars and restaurants do offer some benefits and may include a 401K or something to that effect but, who’s going to work at that company for the next 30 years? Some do and that’s totally cool, but I think we can all agree that is not the standard so…. What is a passionate mixologist, gourmet food/cocktail server and the like to do? Most leave their positions at some point for a “real job” right? Well, I just mentioned what many of those real jobs actually look like. So, can you have it all? The 30 maybe 40-hour work week with time enough to hit the gym, beach or pool before work and have a solid retirement? The answer is yes, and I aim to show you how a solid shifts tips once a month will put you on that path with benefits that no other retirement vehicle offers in America.
Take a look around if you have the interest, I would love to help you stash away your cash in a way that you have become accustomed to, with major tax advantages and then some!
• No risk due to stock market downturns
• Compounding interest earned
• No penalties for taking money out before you’re 59 1/2 years of age
• Substantial payouts much larger than what has been paid into your plan if you get sick or even injured
• Incase of premature death, the beneficiary of your choosing will get an agreed upon amount of money
• Flexible payments – can be more or less each month
Just buy it and watch your money grow over the years no matter where you are…. Having a little something to call your own that allows the flexibility of life’s unexpected turns is a crucial and necessary addition to everyone’s life.
Cheers!
