As we mentor our clients, we find that 99% of them think that increasing income is all they should be trying to achieve. And of course this is part of the goal, but without proper structure it’s only a very small part of the plan. When we say this to them, it provokes all sorts of emotions because some people think we are trying to slow them down. Well, that’s only partially true. What we are trying to do is slow them down from inevitable failure because the simple truth is that if you don’t have a proper structure set up, you are skating on very thin ice.

Why are we so sure of this? Because Donal has spent almost 40 years in business both in property and finance and has made more than his fair share of mistakes. And he can trace all those mistakes to two things:

The first was bad financial structures, and the second was entertaining the wrong type of clientele in his circle.

Let us delve into what we mean by the wrong financial structures. If you don’t have your business and its assets protected through trusts, proper tax domiciliation, and controlled debt (or no debt at all would be our first preference), then you are just on the hamster wheel of life treading water. This also applies to your personal assets as well. It completely amazes us why people have such a mental block around this. We can understand a brand-new business with no experience being like this, but we even see this with businesses that are 10 to 20 years old.

One example we had to deal with recently was a manufacturing company that bought 30 apartments in the company’s name with absolutely no tax protection for the rent received and it went onto the company’s balance sheet so if anything went wrong with the manufacturing company the whole house of cards came down.

So, what would we have done? We would first of all make sure the manufacturing company was restructured to benefit from the best tax structures, the right trust structure to protect it from outside attacks that could shut the company down, and make sure that any assets of the company were properly positioned in structures that gave the best returns and minimized the risk of losing those assets.

We then would have proceeded to set up a SPV (Special Purposes Vehicle) in a tax dividend friendly location where we could have financed that company to buy the apartments.

This does two things. The big one is that your income dramatically increases as your tax goes down because of the dividend structure. Depending on where in the world you did this, it could be anything from 0% to 10%, depending on the jurisdiction. Your tax advisor and trust legal team will help you with this wherever you are in the world as long as it’s not a sanctioned country.

The second thing it does is ring fences those 30 apartments in one isolated structure protected from all your other activities.

Now let’s look at the costs of all this. In this case the 30 apartments were €9 million to purchase. The rent roll was €900,000 P.A. at 25% tax which came to €187,500 after adjustments for running costs and depreciation.

The cost of putting the tax efficient structure we have already mentioned together was €82,725 once off which also included a complete restructuring plan for the manufacturing company. And in this jurisdiction the dividend tax was 0%.

So, now we hope you can see why we want to slow you down when you ask us how to increase your earnings. You will have heard us saying in previous editions of Quantum Mogul Wealth that most of the time we don’t need more money, we just needed to manage what we have much better. This is why there couldn’t be a better example than the one we just gave you.

Another great thing about an SPV is you can sell it much easier as it’s a standalone unit and from a legal perspective is much easier to convey.

Also depending on where the SPV is located it can also be subject to very low stamp duty taxes for the new buyer which is a further attraction when you want to sell.

If you prefer to operate without structure, as too many gentlemen founders and business owners unfortunately do, that is your decision.

However, the longer you wait to structure properly, the more expensive it becomes to fix — and the more you leave exposed in the meantime.

For us, we simply choose not to build empires on avoidable exposure.

Billionaire Breakdown: The larger the balance sheet, the more expensive the correction. Delay in implementing the correct structures for wealth creation from the outset compounds costs.

Takeaway: The fact remains: intelligent structuring is about lawful efficiency and risk management — not avoidance. 

Wealth Creation Is Only Half the Equation

So now that we have spoken about how to create wealth, let’s talk about preserving it. This is one of our favourite things to talk about as we work with our clients to outline a proper plan for preservation.

The Currency Illusion Too Many Gentlemen Founders Still Believe

The first thing we do is to look at what wealth assets look like. So many of our clients think that money in the bank, pensions, or bonds is enough to secure your wealth and leave a legacy for your family.

But sadly, anything that is connected to currency — which savings, pensions, and bonds are — rarely keeps up with inflation and almost never surpasses inflation over an extended period of time.

Money vs. Currency — Why the Distinction Matters

To understand this better, it is important to know that what many elite men call money is actually currency.

So when you say you have money saved in deposits, pensions, and bonds, you are wrong — it’s currency you have saved. Why is this differentiation so important? It’s because currency is not a store of value and never can be a store of value.

Why is this the case? It’s because currency can be printed at will all around the world, and since 1971 it has had nothing backing it except the promise of a government that can go bankrupt at any time.

1971: The Structural Shift Most Ignore

Why is 1971 so important? Because that is when President Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard. And because the US dollar is the global currency that all other currencies are pegged to, it automatically landed all other currencies in the same category. That category was one where nothing backed the currency except the promise of the government.

This is why inflation has rocketed since 1971, and inflation eats into the buying power of your currency.

So when you hear someone say that you could have bought a house in a certain area for €30,000 in 1971 and now that same house is €500,000, most people think the value has gone up. But what has actually happened is the buying power of the currency has gone down.

Why has the buying power of currency gone down? Because now there is virtually no stopping governments from printing currency whenever they want, and in any amount they want.

Inflation Is Not an Accident

Just look at crucial periods of crisis since 1971:

• The US Savings and Loans crisis in the 1980s, resulting in up to $124 billion in cost to taxpayers.

• The junk bond crisis in the late 1980s, which led to a collapse in that market.

• The Mexican Peso crisis in 1994, which had to be bailed out by the IMF and a $50 billion loan from the US.

• The Asian Currency Crisis in the late 1990s, where the IMF and the World Bank had to step in with more than $100 billion in rescue packages.

• The Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Legacy banks failed and hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs, not to mention those who lost their lives due to the enormity of the crisis. Astonishing amounts of currency were printed to try and dig our way out of a mess created by people who displayed levels of greed that are truly hard to comprehend.

• And most recently, the Covid-19 lockdowns, which triggered staggering amounts of currency being printed again to pay for everyone to stay at home.

The Question You Must Now Answer

Now, after all that, we have one question for you: Are you still surprised why inflation has gone gangbusters over the past 55 years?

If the light is starting to come on for you at this point, good — because now you see that if you were saving what you thought was money but in reality was currency, you now know that currency is not a store of value because governments can devalue it overnight when a crisis hits.

So What Actually Holds Value?

So, what then is a store of value?

In our opinion, it’s gold and silver and property without debt. Bear in mind this is our opinion and not financial or legal advice, as Quantum Mogul is an education company and is not authorised to give financial or legal advice.

The Evidence in Plain Sight

If you look at the price of gold in 1975, it was approximately $160 per troy ounce. Today it’s approximately $5,000 per troy ounce. Silver was about $5 an ounce, and today it’s about $80 an ounce.

So the question is, has the price gone up, or has the value of the currency buying it gone down? The answer, of course, is the currency has dropped, and gold and silver have risen to try and meet the supply of currency in the system.

So what does this mean to you in plain English? Gold and silver have held their buying power, and currency has not.

Hold Physical Bullion — Not Paper Claims

One very important point to make here is to make sure you hold gold and silver bullion in your possession and do not hold it in certificates. The COMEX market (commodities exchange market) is so manipulated by traders playing the short game that you don’t know for sure what you’re holding. So only real bullion in your hand will be sufficient to secure your wealth.

The Property Caveat

Property also holds its value, but one caveat with property is to be careful with debt, as it can drag you into the abyss, like the examples we have already shown.

We at Quantum Mogul always promote debt-free structures for wealth preservation. But if you decide to use debt to build it, we cannot stress strongly enough the importance of avoiding being over-leveraged and keeping greed firmly in check.

Takeaway: If your wealth is stored in currency instead of real assets, inflation will quietly erode it — no matter how much you think you’ve saved.

SCHEDULE: your Empire Audit Call to reveal underutilized leverage, hidden exposure, and overlooked compounding inside your business. Come away with a sovereign roadmap to scale.

SECURE: the Sovereign Shift Report to exit the engine room of your empire, stop being the bottleneck to expansion, and begin installing leverage and command.

SUBSCRIBE: to The Quantum Mogul Wealth Podcast for insider intel on how to grow your empire & your wealth the way smart billionaires do: without selling equity, hiring more, or becoming the back-stop.