Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Karen Powell, Founder of My Wealth 4 Life Discussing Overcoming Financial Fears & Building Confidence

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

As Founder of My Wealth 4 Life, Karen leads a firm dedicated to delivering comprehensive, high-level financial and estate planning designed to protect, preserve, and enhance our clients’ hard-earned wealth. Their approach is both strategic and practical—focused on identifying overlooked risks, uncovering hidden opportunities, and building durable financial structures that stand the test of time.They work closely with medical professionals and entrepreneurs who operate in complex financial environments. Many are highly successful, yet still exposed to inefficiencies within their tax strategies, cash flow systems, and overall financial architecture. Their role is to bring clarity and precision—helping them eliminate waste, improve liquidity, and align their resources with long-term wealth and legacy objectives.Karen’s perspective is shaped by a diverse international background in economics, business, and finance. She began my career in economic consulting with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna, Austria, followed by a role as a marketing executive at 3M Germany. She later transitioned into financial services with Prudential in Düsseldorf, Germany, where she developed a foundation in advanced financial planning.After returning to the United States, Karen earned her Certified Financial Planner™ designation and established My Wealth 4 Life to provide a more integrated and sophisticated level of advisory services. She has since pursued advanced certifications in profit acceleration, exit and succession planning, cash flow optimization, income structuring, and capital creation, along with extensive training in estate planning and retirement income strategies.This multidisciplinary expertise allows her to approach each client’s situation with a wide lens—connecting the often siloed areas of tax, business, investment, and legacy planning into one cohesive strategy. The result is not just a financial plan, but a structured path toward sustained wealth, greater control, and long-term financial confidence.Learn more: https://mywealth4life.comSecurities offered through Simplicity Group Investments, Member FINRA/SPIC, 475 Springfield Ave., Summit, N.J. 07901. Advisory Services offered through the Leaders Group Advisory, a Registered Investment Advisor. Orion Financial Associates, LLC is not affiliated with Simplicity Group Investments. CA Lic. No 0B77498.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-karen-powell-founder-of-my-wealth-4-life-discussing-overcoming-financial-fears-building-confidence

Welcome to Influential Entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Karen Powell, who's the founder of My Wealth for Life, and we'll be talking about overcoming financial fears and build confidence. Karen, welcome back to the program. Well, thanks, Mike. I know this is an important topic because this is something that derails people's plans if they don't address it. So thanks for having interest in this topic. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it because I feel like, you know, every time you turn on the TV

or computer and look at the market or news about, you know, the stock market, you get a pit in your stomach and that kind of creates some financial fear and, you know, how do you build confidence in light of that. So let's talk a little bit about some of the steps that people can take to start noticing and overcoming these fears of losing their wealth. They work so long to build. Yeah, so crucial. Thank you. Well, I try to make it simple and think of it as a five-finger solution, A, B, C, D, E. I'll start with A. So A means if you automate payments and some of the events that you have in your finances and track that system, then you feel like, well, things are taking care of.

You can monitor how much is coming in, how much is going out, and you don't have that uncertainty like, am I spending too much or am I not, you know, going to have enough? Those kinds of things, if you are more or less automating these and you have a system where you can see it happening, it removes the uncertainty about where your money goes. That's A. B is building savings and borrowing less. So B means that once you start automating things, hopefully you have some discretionary funds left over or can find some to build your savings.

And then that reduces the amount that you have to borrow because obviously if you have savings, you don't have to get into those emergency borrowing situations where you were taking on financial risks. C is to take control of your cash flow. Very, very important. My clients are in a system that we help them set up where all of their inflows, their income and other kinds of payments that come into them monthly, quarterly, or annually, go into one central account, and then they can see all the money there and reserve some in savings there over the amount that they have built up, and then the rest just goes automatically out to pay for their lifestyle cost. And if they have extra above what they need to be saving, then they can put that into what we call

capital accounts and get really resources for the future buildup. So the next is D for diversify. The real result is that many folks will run into a situation where they are putting all their eggs in one basket or too many eggs in few basket. We suggest, and I believe personally, to diversify where your funds are, what they're invested in and understand what you own. own and why you own it. And then E is to educate yourself.

You don't have to get a MBA, but if you have significant wealth, you have to understand a little bit about mortgages, investments, and insurance, and you know, know what questions to ask or at least investigate what that's about and what you

need to know so that basically you don't get led down the wrong path or make mistakes or lose out on opportunities. That's the key thing. And then F. F is not an option. We don't want to fail.

Yep, that's true. You know, no, the last option is, you know, finally sit back and relax. You know, this is really powerful having this permanent financial plan that you just listed out. Automate, build savings, borrow less, control cash flow, diverse fight, educate. Now, none of these sound earth-shattering rocket science, but they all sound like it's, It might take a minute or two to set up or learn. You know, like as an example, if you don't have the amount of savings you need and you've got too much debt, the B section, but might take a little bit of time, you know, to be working on. But me just looking at this plan sure makes me think, boy, when this is working, that will reduce stress and reduce anxiety because you trust the process.

Is that what you're hearing from your clients that are going through it? Absolutely. You know, I've had clients who say, I don't know a thing about this. I really don't, I'm not involved, et cetera. But, you know, just step by step, the little more that they understand or that they learn, the confidence makes a huge difference in, well, I say, I want my clients to be swans. They sleep well at night. And they like that. They like being swans. And so that's why they're not in the dark about what's happening with their money of fully disclosing everything and explaining. And that's another thing that makes them feel confident and basically feeling really good about what their decisions have been because they understand how it's unfolding. But, you know, in other words, just walking into your advisor and saying, here it is. do it and get back to me, you know. That's not really the way because then what happens in the dark and night when you hear that the market crashed, et cetera, well, what did happen with it?

I don't understand what you did, et cetera. No, that's not the way to go about it. And that's not how I handle it with folks that I deal with. You know, I'm sure in conversations in the past, we've talked about statistics. So I'm sure that you either can point to a statistic or could agree that this. this statistic exists. If you are confident about your financial future and have less stress, you're going to live longer.

It just stands to reason, right? Oh, absolutely. I will say, you know, worry does destroy your longevity, I'm pretty sure. But the key is, in regard to that, as far as one statistic, I read that far and away, I think it was like 75% percent of business owners reported that if they had an advisor, they were more successful in their business. Because what it allows you, it doesn't matter whether you're a doctor or who you are, it allows you to concentrate on what you're best at and, you know, live longer and, you know,

the whole business of the fear being removed and the, you know, knee-jerk reactions that can result when you don't have some advisor that you feel confident you've got your plan in place. You know, people can, let me give you an example. There was a fellow, he had a very large IRA and had retired, but it was all taxable income. He was going to have to start drawing when he turned 73. And so he was talking to somebody at a party, and they told him, well, gosh, Roth IRAs are the best. you, they're tax-free, you know, you're going to be paying a lot of taxes on this withdrawals. So what did he do without in consulting anybody? He went and he cashed out the whole

IRA. And then had that triggered a big tax event. Huge tax event looming, right? And then he comes in for advice. And well, you can't undo it. He said, I want a Roth IRA. Well, you can't make the Roth IRA now. But I can tell you about one situation where what I told him is that, you know, I had this other client, a real estate investor, he had a huge taxable event, and we were able to then channel that into another kind of benefit and eliminate that tax for that year and then parcel it out into a strategy that developed an estate for his children. And so there was a solution, see?

Yep. But you got to think about it before you pull the trigger. Yeah, if you would just consult somebody before you make these earthshaking changes in your finances, right? Yeah. So, yeah, that's the key there is that, yeah, I mean, fortunately, I know of some strategies that can help if you make a ridiculous move. But it's much better to do it the other way. And we usually do those strategies in a gradual, you know, annual way or whatever. So that's the best way.

Because in kind of looking at that large IRA and Roth strategy, maybe one of the things, if he had come to see you beforehand, you might have said, hey, why don't we do it gradually over the next three, five, seven years or whatever and pull a little bit out, a little bit out because when it triggers a tax event, it's not going to get you into the highest tax bracket. It's going to get you into this one here. But over the next few years, then we'll gradually have, that could have been one of the things to look at. But once you've pulled the triggers, too late.

That's exactly right. And that's what I did for one client. And she did do that transition of her IRA into, you know, annual Roth conversions. And then recently I was speaking to her, I said, you have this other account over here that was never converted. And I said, are you aware that the people, over 65 now have this new $6,000 tax extra amount of standard deduction that you could use to she was thrilled. I said, did your tax person tell you about this? No, but she went and immediately changed that account into a Roth because she now has this extra bonus for a couple of years

being over 65 and having that tax law change benefit her. So I'm telling all. All the clients that are eligible about that because this is just an open door to bring some more benefit back into their family and their estate. You know, Kevin, I feel like, or I think I've heard this statistic, one of the greatest fears that people have is making sure that they have enough money to live through retirement, you know, not outliving their money. What advice would you give to someone worried about having to work past their retirement age? Yeah. that is very important to try to plan that in advance and not come right up to the age right there. But the key there is to, first of all, know what you have in place, what savings you have

and how it is functioning for you and what growth rate do you need to get the amount and have enough not to go back to work when you do retire. and then identify how can you grow that or how can you, you know, make sure that that amount is going to be available. So one of the other things that I ask folks to do, and I know that maybe retirement might be several years away, but to clarify your vision, like what kind of retirement are you envisioning, you know, cruises every other month or, you know, build a new home, or whatever it is, because the issue is the true cost of your later life might not be as much as you think it is or might not cost as much as what you're spending right now in your current working life. But there are, you know, just as an example, and this is kind of crazy. It's not for everybody.

But I have a client who decided at age 56 that she wanted to retire. She had a business for many years and she still had it. She said, I'm going to exit this business and I want to travel. That's all I want to do. I don't want to have a home for a few years. I just want to travel. So we worked out a plan and we set up a lifetime income for her that she can trigger and open up those faucets anytime she wants on those various lifetime incomes that are guaranteed.

And at the same time, we set aside. some funds out of the sale of her house that she can utilize if she wants to at any time to get another house. It's interesting because she's been traveling for the last eight years. Wow. And just next year is going to turn 65 or so. And she's not had any problems at all. Has hardly used any of her funds that she's set aside because she's,

she's just a very conservative kind of person. But she's loving the freedom, the outdoors, the everything that this has provided to her. And she never thought she could retire, you know, 10 years in advance of her retirement date. And it's worked. And I even mentioned to her, well, you could start turning on some of these lifetime incomes because they're going to be for your lifetime. And she's, I know, I'm not ready. I don't need that.

maybe next year or the year. So it's really wonderful when some people can know what they want and, you know, visualize it. And then we adapt that strategy to that. So the other thing is if that's not feasible, because, of course, that's an unusual case, that you can, while you're still working, consider a side business or some form of extra additional income. and or investment rental property that feed you some income.

There's in a case like that, if you don't mind, I'd give you an example about a dentist who began in his midlife planning his retirement plan and estate planning, etc. And he purchased also a commercial building so that the practice could be there, but it was large enough to have other stream of income from the other tenants in the building. And that was large enough then to create additional income stream for his retirement. But we also put into place the estate plan there. And his spouse was not really involved in anything except in the estate plan.

She kind of let him handle all the other aspects. But fortunately, that got put into place because he passed away before his retirement age and everything was in place. And so here she is today in her 90s and she is just fine. You know, all this has taken care of, taking care of all of her retirement needs. And fortunately, she's in still good health. So this peace of mind, this kind of, you know, communication, between the couple, for instance,

of what they wanted to have available, even if they're not here to enjoy it with their spouse, can make it work in any kind of outcome, whatever the case might turn out to be. But, you know, just making sure you put it in place and it's all going to be what's needed at the time when you do have that retirement need. So that's really the piece of,

the peace of mind can be established just by making the right decisions early enough and put it in place. And, you know, it happens. So these are all cases where even from the grave, these people have been able to make sure what they wanted to accomplish has been accomplished. You know, and like we've said before, that peace of mind, that emotional aspect of making, of having this plan. land in place well ahead of time because now you know that it's taken care of it, the example of the lady that's traveling. Wonderful. The dentist that passed away before his wife, she's taken care of.

All of these took place because you put these in place. You did the ABCDE automate, build savings bar less, control cash flow, diversified, and you stayed educated and updated. So, Karen, this has been so powerful to have this in our mind and to realize that we can overcome those financial fears and build confidence. If someone is interested in learning more and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can do that? Well, you know, they could start at our website.

That's www. MyWealthforlife.com. So that's mywealthforlife.com with number four. Okay. And on there, you'll see we have ways to contact us through email, phone, etc. But also we have events being planned to take place going forward, some about estate planning, et cetera.

So if you want to get more educated on some of the aspects that I provide to clients, then that's available. And we're just constantly putting out information there so that you'll have what you need to start. thinking about how can we help you. Karen, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. Mike, thank you. It's been wonderful. Enjoyed it. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.com.