Empath Usen

It’s easy to talk about money online but it’s a very different thing entirely to be responsible & accountable to actual clients. When a client trusts you with their financial life, you can’t fake genuinely caring about every part of their lives and doing everything you can to help them succeed. E.g, a prospective client we’re in the middle of working with at @ArushaWealth: She first moved to the US as a graduate student. Then she built up her career in corporate, and eventually started her own businesses Here are 4 things we’ve started working through with her: 1 Cash flow planning: We started with a 5-year cash flow plan (think of it like a personal income statement). How much is left after fixed and variable costs? How much should be re-invested in the business? How much should go toward personal investments & retirement contributions? 2 Investing back home: She has family members in her home country who she supports regularly, but she also wants to invest in businesses & other opportunities in the country too. For this, the danger as a US resident investing in foreign funds is the potential PFIC (Passive Foreign Investment Company) rules, which can result in harsher US tax treatment. We’re working on connecting her with investment funds & managers that are structured to avoid this. 3 Business Planning: Her business has been expanding, so we’re coordinating with a local CPA firm on bookkeeping, payroll & retirement plan standardization, and tracking expenses for business tax deductions. We’re also assessing whether her current LLC structure still makes sense by modelling the potential tax savings of an S corporation election. 4 Estate planning: This one is really important because of where she lives (Boston, Massachusetts). The federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per individual in 2026, so it may not affect most people. But state-level thresholds can be much lower In her case, Massachusetts has a $2 million estate tax exemption & doesn’t allow a surviving spouse to inherit an unused exemption. We flagged this early because her assets + residence exceed $2M & careful estate planning is needed to address the potential exposure This is what being accountable to real clients looks like. Understanding their lives, thinking through the details, helping them build global flexibility to pursue the life they want (wherever in the world that may be) & coordinating with other professionals. If you'd like to talk about your situation, let's talk here: arushawealth.com/contact

You're either compounding daily or depreciating daily, nothing is really standing still. Even if it may take years to see it clearly.