Strategic Wealth Strategies

Strategic Wealth Strategies Contact Us: https://www.hopp.bio/strategicwealthstrategies

I educate my clients on how to think outside the box and save as much in taxes as possible.

My goal both professionally and personally is protection of your assets and your family. I educate my clients on the financial strategies that specialize in asset and family protection. I specialize on helping families find money that they are transferring away unknowingly and unnecessarily through wealth transfers in the way they pay their taxes, fund their retirement plan, their mortgage, pay for College, and major capitol purchases. I believe that I can have a bigger impact on your financial future by helping you avoid losses. Most families will lose more money in wealth transfers than they will ever accumulate in savings, simply because of poor financial decisions. There is opportunity costs to every decision. I educate my clients on how to optimize every dollar that they have worked so hard to earn!

A retirement date is easy to choose.Retirement readiness is something you have to build.Before deciding when to retire, ...
09/02/2026

A retirement date is easy to choose.

Retirement readiness is something you have to build.

Before deciding when to retire, I believe you should know:

• Where your retirement income will come from
• How taxes could affect that income
• How your plan handles market volatility and inflation
• Whether your assets are structured to give you flexibility
• What happens when life doesn't follow the plan

A date on the calendar tells you when you'd like to retire.

A comprehensive plan helps tell you whether you're actually ready.

Retiring on your terms takes more than a date. It takes a plan.

What did I want my kids to understand about money?Looking back, it really came down to a few simple things.Work for what...
08/31/2026

What did I want my kids to understand about money?

Looking back, it really came down to a few simple things.

Work for what you want.
When you've worked for something yourself, you tend to appreciate it a whole lot more.

Don't expect something for nothing.
There is value in earning your way.

Be smart about what you spend.
You don't have to spend money just because you have it.

And as they got older, one more became increasingly important:

Invest. Don't just earn.

Nothing complicated. No sophisticated financial formulas around the dinner table.

Just a few principles I hoped would help them become responsible with money and appreciate what they built for themselves.

Funny enough, those are still pretty good principles at any age.

You may have a CPA preparing your taxes.An attorney handling your estate documents.A financial advisor managing your inv...
08/29/2026

You may have a CPA preparing your taxes.
An attorney handling your estate documents.
A financial advisor managing your investments.
An insurance professional protecting against risk.

All of them may be excellent at what they do.

But here’s the question I think more people should be asking:

Do they have each other?

Because your taxes don’t exist separately from your investments. Your estate plan doesn’t exist separately from your retirement strategy. And decisions made in one area can create consequences in another.

In the military, we never planned a mission by having every unit operate independently and hoping it all came together in the end.

Everyone had a role. But everyone also had to understand the mission.

I believe financial planning should work the same way.

That’s why I’ve built relationships with professionals across tax planning, estate planning, insurance, and wealth management. When a situation requires expertise outside my lane, I want the right people at the table and communicating with each other.

Individual expertise matters. Coordination is what turns it into a strategy.

Before your next financial decision, ask yourself one question:

Who’s connecting the dots?

One of the most important lessons I learned in the military was that leadership isn’t simply telling people where to go....
08/28/2026

One of the most important lessons I learned in the military was that leadership isn’t simply telling people where to go.

It’s helping them understand the map.

Before a mission, you needed to understand the objective, the terrain, the risks, the available routes, and what could change along the way.

I believe financial leadership should work much the same way.

My job isn’t to simply tell someone, “Put your money here” or “Do this when you retire.”

It’s to help them understand:

Where their income will come from.
How their assets are structured.
Where taxes could affect the plan.
What risks they may not be seeing.
How all the pieces work together.
And what options they actually have.

Because when people understand the map, they can make better decisions for themselves and their families.

That’s what leadership means to me today.

The uniform may have changed, but the responsibility hasn’t:

Educate. Prepare. Empower.

You don’t want the first time you experience an emergency to be during the emergency. Beieve it or not both pilots surv...
08/21/2026

You don’t want the first time you experience an emergency to be during the emergency. Beieve it or not both pilots survived!

During the Gulf War, much of our helicopter work was done at night, sometimes this type of helicopter was searching for ships laying mines.

Flying over water under night vision goggles leaves very little room for panic if something goes wrong.

That’s why our training included being strapped into a mock helicopter fuselage, submerged underwater, flipped upside down, and learning how to escape.

Then they made it harder.

One exit.

Then blindfolded.

Then upside down, underwater, blindfolded, with everyone trying to get through that same exit.

Why?

Because when the real emergency happens, you don’t suddenly rise to the occasion.

You fall back on what you prepared for.

I’ve carried that lesson with me ever since.

Most financial problems don’t announce themselves in advance either. Markets change. Tax laws change. Businesses struggle. Health changes. Life changes.

You cannot prepare for every possibility.

But you can build a plan before you're underwater trying to figure out where the exit is.

The best strategy I ever learned wasn’t in a boardroom. It was about survival.When I was flying in Iraq and Kuwait, larg...
08/19/2026

The best strategy I ever learned wasn’t in a boardroom. It was about survival.

When I was flying in Iraq and Kuwait, large areas were covered with buried mines.

Most of the time, you couldn’t see them.

So when I had to land, I looked for tire or tank tracks. If a heavy vehicle had already crossed that ground safely, the odds were better that we could too.

Then one day, a massive windstorm stripped the sand away.

For the first time, you could actually see how many mines had been hidden underneath.

That image stayed with me.

Because whether you’re flying a helicopter, running a business, or planning your retirement, the principle is the same:

You don’t wait until the danger is obvious to build a strategy.

You prepare before you need it.

That lesson kept people alive.

Today, it’s one of the reasons I believe so strongly in helping families plan ahead, reduce unnecessary risk, and make financial decisions with intention.

Strategy isn’t just about success. Sometimes, it’s about survival.

The biggest retirement risk isn't the market.It's believing that because you've saved well, you're automatically prepare...
08/07/2026

The biggest retirement risk isn't the market.

It's believing that because you've saved well, you're automatically prepared.

Over the years I've spoken to thousands of people about retirement planning, and I've noticed something interesting.

The people who worry the least about retirement aren't always the ones with the most money.

They're the ones who understand how their money works.

They have a plan for taxes. They have a plan for income. They have a plan for the unexpected.

Hope is not a retirement strategy. Preparation is.

That's the message I've tried to share every time I've had the opportunity to stand behind a podium like this.

Because after decades of helping families prepare for retirement, I've learned that the goal isn't simply to build wealth.
It's to make sure you get to keep it.

One month from today, I'll be teeing it up at the World Amateur Golf Championship in Myrtle Beach.People often ask why I...
08/06/2026

One month from today, I'll be teeing it up at the World Amateur Golf Championship in Myrtle Beach.

People often ask why I still compete.

At this stage of life, it's not about proving anything.

It's about staying sharp.

Golf has a way of reminding you that discipline never retires. Every round demands patience. Every bad hole tests your mindset. Every good shot reminds you why preparation always beats luck.

I've found that's true in financial planning, too.

The people who enjoy the most confidence in retirement usually aren't the ones who guessed right. They're the ones who prepared long before they needed to.

Looking forward to another great week in Myrtle Beach, meeting golfers from around the world, and seeing what lessons the course has to teach this year.

In 2016, I had the privilege of speaking at the Military Academy at West Point alongside some remarkable leaders, includ...
08/05/2026

In 2016, I had the privilege of speaking at the Military Academy at West Point alongside some remarkable leaders, including Buzz Aldrin and Lt. General Russel Honoré.

The event brought together entrepreneurs, innovators, military leaders, and people from around the world to discuss leadership, innovation, and preparing for the future.

While everyone came from different backgrounds, I kept coming back to one idea:

The biggest threats are often the ones people don't see coming.

In the military, you learn to identify risks before they become crises.

That's exactly how I've approached retirement planning throughout my career.

Most families spend decades building wealth, but very few spend the same amount of time preparing for the risks that can quietly erode it:

• Rising taxes
• Inflation
• Long-term care costs
• Sequence of returns
• Outliving your income

Those aren't exciting conversations, I know.

But they're the conversations that can make the biggest difference over a 20 or 30-year retirement.

Speaking at West Point was certainly an honor, but the mission hasn't changed since that day.

Help good people prepare before the risks become expensive, and give them the confidence to enjoy the retirement they've worked so hard to build.

There was no room for "good enough."When we flew Blackhawks, preparation wasn't optional.Every mission started long befo...
08/03/2026

There was no room for "good enough."

When we flew Blackhawks, preparation wasn't optional.

Every mission started long before the helicopter ever left the ground.

You reviewed the plan.
You prepared for the unexpected.
You trained until your response became instinct.

I've carried that same mindset into helping families prepare for retirement.

Because retirement isn't the time to discover what you should have planned for years earlier.

The mission may be different today.
The importance of preparation isn't.

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