Why Traditional Financial Advice Won’t Get You to Freedom Fast Enough

You’ve been told to max out your 401(k).
To live lean.
To invest in index funds.
To be patient.

You’re doing well—maybe even better than most. But deep down, you know something’s off.

You didn’t start a business to retire at 65!!  You didn’t pour blood, sweat, and sleepless nights into something just to wait 30 years for freedom.  And yet, the advice you keep getting sounds like it’s written for a corporate employee making $120K—not for an owner who’s driving growth, managing people, and carrying the weight of an entire operation.

So let’s get brutally honest.

If you’re a business owner with a strong income, but your life still doesn’t feel like freedom, this article is for you.

Because traditional financial advice—while technically correct—isn’t built for entrepreneurs.
It’s built for the risk-averse.
The slow-and-steady.
The play-it-safe crowd.

And you’re not that.

Traditional BAD Advice

I recently came across a post from a well-known Certified Financial Planner®. The message? How to hit financial independence by age 50.

The plan looked like this:

• Save 35% of your income if you start in your 20s

• Save 45% if you’re in your 30s

• Save 70%+ in your 40s

• Max out tax-advantaged accounts

• Invest in low-cost index funds

• Rebalance once a year

• Live lean and wait 25–30 years

On paper, it made sense. But for a business owner? It falls apart.

That advice is built for employees—not people building companies. It assumes predictable income, steady contributions, and a willingness to defer gratification for decades. But you didn’t start your business to defer life. You started it to design life on your terms.

Traditional advice moves too slowly. And in many cases, it leaves you stuck—asset-rich but freedom-poor.

Let’s talk about why that model breaks down, and what actually creates wealth for business owners who want real options long before retirement age.

The Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Most financial advisors define freedom using the 4% rule. If you can safely pull 4% from your investments every year, you’re set for life.

So if your goal is to live on $300,000 annually:

$300,000 ÷ 0.04 = $7.5 million

That number assumes your wealth is entirely liquid and invested. It doesn’t include:

• Your house

• Business equity

• Lifestyle assets (boats, toys, etc.)

• Rising taxes or long-term care needs

• Any margin for error, opportunity, or risk

And if you’re counting on the sale of your business to get you there?

You’ll need to account for deal fees, taxes, debt payoff, and personal upgrades that usually follow a liquidity event. An $8 million sale might net you closer to $5 million after the dust settles. Which means you’re still short of true financial freedom.

Business Is the Last Legal Shortcut

I’ve watched business owners grow from zero to $10 million in net worth in less than five years—not by saving aggressively, but by building intentionally. They didn’t rely on the market. They used their business as their primary wealth vehicle.

They all had a few things in common:

• They lived below their means—but not forever

• They reinvested heavily in systems and people

• They followed frameworks and didn’t try to wing it

• They got real coaching, not just free advice online

• They treated their business like an asset, not a job

Compare that to the average investor maxing out retirement accounts year after year. The speed of wealth creation isn’t even in the same universe.

Real estate? It has its place. But it’s cyclical and less within your control. The right building at the wrong time can set you back years. Your business, on the other hand, gives you levers you can pull daily—revenue, expenses, margins, positioning, value creation.

You control the game. That’s why it’s the only shortcut left.

Why Most Business Owners Stay Stuck

So why do so many capable owners plateau?

It’s not because they’re lazy or unmotivated. It’s because they’re following the wrong playbook—and doing it alone.

Too often, they rely on financial advice built for employees. Or they keep grinding in the business instead of building the business. And most dangerous of all? They try to solve new problems with the same thinking that created their current results.

I’ve been there myself. After three business exits, I still hit a ceiling. What changed everything? I stopped going it alone. I hired a high-level coach and leaned into a structured path. It wasn’t comfortable—but it worked.

The Path Forward: The DecaMillionaire Way

What I discovered—and now teach—isn’t magic. It’s structure. It’s focus. It’s alignment.

I call it The DecaMillionaire Way, and it walks business owners through five phases:

1. Relentless Foundation – Get clear on your vision and the trade-offs required.

2. Relentless Examination – Understand where you’re actually at: financially, operationally, personally.

3. Relentless Execution – Build systems, structure, and scale beyond yourself.

4. Relentless Exit – Create a business that is attractive, transferable, and sellable—on your terms.

5. Relentless Freedom – Redeploy time and capital to build a legacy, not just a lifestyle.

If you want to compress time, build enterprise value, and create true optionality, this is the path.

Final Thought

If you’re stuck between success and suffocation, there’s a reason. You’re trying to follow advice that was never designed for owners.

You don’t need another app. You don’t need to hustle harder.
You need a playbook built for how wealth is actually created by people like you.

Yes, it will cost something. You’ll have to focus. You’ll have to simplify. But the life on the other side? That’s what real freedom looks like.

You don’t need to wait 30 years. You just need to be relentless.