Alex Flaugher

Congratulations, you made it to the PGA tour! You are now a business owner, whether anyone told you that or not. A rookie season means travel and lodging for roughly 25 tournament weeks (call it $75,000), a caddie earning a base rate plus a cut of winnings, a swing coach, a trainer, equipment, dues, and an agent fee. That overhead exists whether you make a single cut or not, and it adds up to somewhere north of $215,000 before a check ever clears. Then the revenue side gets complicated. A rookie season might average somewhere around $650,000 in tournament winnings, and that money shows up across 20 or more states in a single season. Most of those states tax nonresident athlete income the moment it's earned there. That's not one tax return. It's a return, sometimes a payment, for nearly every state on the schedule. This is where we actually spend our time with these clients. Coordinating estimated payments across every state so nothing gets missed, smoothing cash flow for income that arrives in bursts instead of biweekly paychecks, and structuring the entity side for endorsement and appearance income separately from tournament winnings. This type of planning is complicated and having a team on your side gives you the time back to be a great "Business Owner"

If you're a business owner, here's exactly how to know if your advisor isn't actually doing their job. Ask yourself these, honestly: Could you pick your advisor's teammates out of a lineup, or is it just them handling your business and personal money alone? If your advisor vanished for two weeks mid-quarter, would your estimated tax payment still get made on time? Has anyone ever texted you "handled" about your finances before you even knew there was something to handle? Between "we're moving your accounts" and "everything's fully funded," does your money go into a black box you're just supposed to trust while you're busy running the actual business? Scroll your messages with them. Is the last thing they sent you information about your money, or an ask for more of your time? If you hesitated on more than one of these, that's not a reason to panic. It's a reason to ask better questions at your next review. A good advisor is a person. A good firm is a system that doesn't depend on that person being available.

The best compliment we get isn’t “thank you for handling that.” It’s “wait, I didn’t even think about that.” Below is a perfect example of how we work for our clients. A quarterly tax payment means coordinating with the CPA, confirming the number, making sure it’s actually paid. Work that happens entirely off a client’s radar. Having a team that is quarterbacking every move is valuable and gives more time back to work on your business.

Most founders would card a +5 on their own finances and swear they're playing scratch golf. I built the leaderboard to prove it ,same scoring as the Open Championship (which tees off Thursday), except instead of golf shots, I'm scoring the financial habits of business owners. Under par is good. Over par means you're bleeding strokes and don't know it yet. Cut line's at +2. The good news: unlike Birkdale, you get to replay this round as many times as you want. If you are a business owner and want to shoot under par, Moment Private Wealth has done this before for others like yourself.

If you think wealth is built by picking the right stocks… you’re already behind. It’s not crypto. It’s not day trading. And it’s definitely not luck. So how do wealthy people actually build wealth? After working with high-net-worth clients for years… it’s honestly pretty boring: • They invest consistently • They pay attention to taxes (a lot more than people think) • They avoid big mistakes • And they hold quality assets for a long time They’re not trying to get rich quick. They’re focused on staying wealthy and letting time do the heavy lifting. And over time… that’s what actually works.

At 22, I thought having a plan meant I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It doesn't. Here's what I wish someone told me: Your first job isn't about the paycheck. It's about what you learn while nobody's watching your bank account yet. Debt isn't good or bad. It's a tool. The only question, is it funding an asset or a lifestyle? Invest in yourself like you invest in the market. Courses, coaching, travel, spend on what sharpens you. That ROI compounds too. Network like crazy. Not the business-card kind. The dinner kind. This moves the needle more than almost anything else on this list. Try multiple things. Multiple jobs. Multiple paths. You don't know what you'll love until you've done a few things you didn't. The people around you at 22 either 10x your growth or slowly cap it. Choose the room, not just the job. Nobody's teaching you this. Not school. Not your first boss. You have to go find it yourself.

Trump Accounts launched July 4th. We've gotten a ton of questions about them recently Karson wrote up everything you need to know, eligibility, contribution limits, how they compare to 529s and Roth IRAs. Worth a read if you have kids (or grandkids) born 2025-2028. momentprivatewealth.com/post/the-trump…

Was listening to a podcast last week. Guy calls in. His dad owns a business. 4 siblings involved. No plan for what happens next. He wasn't worried about the business. He was worried about himself. Where does he stand? What happens to his role, his equity, his future, when nobody upstream has decided anything? That's the part everyone misses. "My kids will take over the business" isn't a plan. It's a hope. Add multiple siblings and "hope" becomes a family fault line waiting to happen. No timeline. No valuation. No agreement on what "taking over" even means. → A plan is a document. Not a conversation you had once at Thanksgiving. → "Taking over" needs a date. Not a vibe. → Siblings outside the business still need an outcome, usually cash, not equity. → The owner needs a retirement plan that doesn't depend on the business paying them forever. If you're the next generation sitting in that uncertainty right now, you're not overreacting.

The last couple weeks, our team at Moment has been sitting across the table from guys prepping for the MLB Draft this weekend. Guys who've spent their whole lives grinding at the ball field. Early mornings. Extra reps. Years of work nobody saw. You can see it on their faces when we talk through the plan, the relief that comes with knowing someone's actually in their corner, not just talking numbers. That's the part of this job that never gets old. This isn't about the contract. It's about watching years of work turn into a moment. This weekend, I hope every single one of them gets to hear their name called. Proud of this group. Proud to be in their corner.

The average set of golf clubs costs more than most people have saved in an emergency fund. And yet I've never heard a financial influencer tell people to "cut the golf." They'll tell you to cancel Netflix. Skip the daily coffee. Don't go out to eat. But the $200 Saturday tee time? Total blind spot. I'm not saying quit golf. I'd never say that. I'm saying be honest about what your hobbies actually cost, and plan for them instead of pretending they don't exist. Here's what that actually looks like: - Build it into your monthly budget as a line item. Name it. Own it. - Decide what the hobby is worth to you. - Find the cheaper versions where it doesn't matter. Off-peak tee times. Last year's equipment. Public courses over private.

Over the last 10 years I've told myself "this is the last exam I'm ever taking" more times than I can count. Series 7. Done. Never again. Series 63. Okay that's it. Series 66. For real this time. Series 24. I mean it now. Series 4. Absolutely the last one. 10 years later, i am still on my study grind. Every single time I finished one I meant it. And every single time something pulled me toward the next one because I could see what it would unlock for my career and my clients. The honest truth is I don't love studying. Never have. But I've never regretted a single license or course I've pushed through. The ROI on investing in yourself is impossible to calculate, but it's real. It shows up in the conversations you can have, the problems you can solve, the doors that open that you didn't even know existed. Whatever that looks like for you, a course, a certification, a license, a book you've been putting off, just start it.

"Diversify everything. Don't put too many eggs in one basket." It's the first thing they teach you in finance. I've said it myself a hundred times. But I think it's also the reason a lot of people never build real wealth. The people I've watched actually get wealthy, business owners, athletes at the top of their career, the ones who really made it , they put all of their eggs in one basket. Then diversified. They went deep on something they understood, built it up, then spread it out. Diversification is a wealth preservation strategy. Not a wealth building one. You can disagree with me on this. A lot of people do. But I think we've conflated "don't lose what you have" advice with "here's how to grow it" advice, and that's a disservice to people early in the journey.

Being a student athlete taught me some of life’s most important skills. I remember leaving for a golf trip on a Saturday afternoon. Practice round Sunday. Rounds 1 and 2 Monday and round 3,Tuesday. Back on campus Wednesday morning. This was a fairly common schedule for us. I walked in the door with a bag full of dirty clothes and a syllabus full of missed work. Hours of homework. A test I wasn't there to take. No one was going to figure that out for me. That stretch taught me two things I still use every single day. The first was time management. Not the motivational poster version. The real version. Where you're doing homework in Van the after finishing a tournament because that was your only free time. The second was relationships. I had to walk into every professor's office and show them I actually cared about their class. Not just ask for an extension. Prove that I respected their time and wasn't looking for a handout. Most of them came through for me. Not because I was an athlete. Because I showed up like someone who gave a damn.

Revenue up. Taxes up. Stress up. Wealth? Flat. That's the pattern I see with business owners. They've got a CPA. Maybe a lawyer. And that's it. Nobody looking at the full picture. Cash flow. Investments. Tax strategy. What actually happens when you sell. That's exactly what we do at Moment. Our team has decades of experience, across wealth management, professional sports, and working with entrepreneurs who built something real and don't want to lose it. We're a team that knows your name, your business, and what you're actually trying to build. If that sounds like what you've been missing, let's talk.

The PGA Tour just changed everything. Starting in 2028. Two tiers. Championship Series: - 23-24 events - Feb to August - 120-player fields - $20M purse minimum every week Challenger Series: - 20+ events running concurrently - $4M purse - path to move up Here's what makes it real: promotion and relegation actually has teeth. Top 90 on the Championship Series keep their card. Top 20 on the Challenger move up. Win enough Challenger events and you promote mid-season. The postseason gets a full makeover too. Match play format. Elevated international events with top players. A "Last Chance" series of 4-6 events in the fall for guys fighting for their card. Every round matters. Every tournament matters. Tiger chaired the committee that built this. Players had a seat at the table. Most pro golfers have a 5-10 year window to earn. That's it. $20M purses change the math on what's possible in that window. Not sure about you but adding match play to the mix is exactly what fans, like myself, want to see. Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

A college athlete asked me what a W-9 was last week. He'd already signed two NIL deals. That's not on him. That is on the lack of financial education provided to him so far in his career. Here's what most athletes don't know when they sign their first NIL deal: → You owe taxes on it, nobody withholds for you → The IRS wants quarterly estimated payments → A W-9 is not just paperwork, it has real tax implications And closing that gap is something we take seriously. Financial education isn't a one-time conversation. It's ongoing. It's sitting down and explaining why, not just what. Because an athlete who understands his money is an athlete who can protect it.

Most 19 year olds don’t earn $250k per year. Even fewer get to keep it. This is a real life scenario. 19 years old. Making $250K playing college baseball. Probably won’t get drafted. This might be the biggest check he ever sees. He wants a Raptor R and a chain. $125K. Half his money. Gone. Here’s what I would tell him: I wouldn’t say no. I would ask him one question first. “If baseball ends tomorrow — what does your life look like in 5 years?” …..silence That silence is the whole job. We didn’t tell him he couldn’t have the truck. We told him what the truck actually costs. Not $125K. $125K invested over 30 years is worth $1M minimum. Probably closer to $2M. That’s what drives off the lot when you say yes too fast. Buy the chain. Save the truck for later. Put the rest to work.

@markcecchini Have to start with the IRS. Personally I would tackle that before paying a dime to anything else.

• $40K in maxed out credit card debt • $60K 401(k) loans • Already pulled HELOC • Mortgage on the primary residence • $80K owed to the IRS • $30K owed to the FTB $350k household income. Only other assets are qualified retirement accounts. Genuine question. What would you do here?

This week our team at Moment had virtual meetings with MLB Draft prospects and their parents. Every parent on that call has spent years sacrificing for this moment. Early mornings. Travel ball. Hotel rooms. Missed weekends. Every player has given everything to get here. What stood out most was our team. Everyone locked in. Everyone on the same page. Everyone knowing exactly what role they play when draft day hits. That coordination is what makes the difference for these families. Our job is simple. When that call comes the only thing on their mind should be pure joy. Not taxes. Not signing bonuses. Not what account to open first. Not a single financial question in sight. That is what we build toward. There is nothing better than this work.

The most underrated financial move a business owner can make before they turn 40. Fund a defined benefit plan. Most owners are throwing money into a SEP IRA or a Solo 401k and calling it a day. Nothing wrong with those. But a defined benefit plan lets you contribute potentially six figures annually depending on your age and income. It’s tax deductible. It reduces your business income. It builds wealth outside the business. And almost nobody under 40 is doing it because nobody told them it exists. Business owners, what’s the most underrated move that you have made?