Live Counterflow

Amanda Neely
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

Most financial advice was designed for employees with W-2s and a 30-year runway. If you're a business owner or entrepreneur, you've probably already figured out that it wasn't built for you. Live Counterflow is for the ones the standard playbook missed. Hosted by Amanda Neely, CFP® — Bank on Yourself Professional and Profit First Professional — each episode covers the financial principles that actually work for business owners: liquidity before growth, building wealth without requiring perfect timing or heroic discipline, and designing your finances around your real life instead of an idealized version of it. New episodes every Saturday, tied to the Live Counterflow Substack at livecounterflow.substack.com. livecounterflow.substack.com

  1. 5d ago

    Half of Every Dollar

    Subscribe and get the links at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/ Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    Half of Every Dollar

  2. Oct 31

    The Bank Decides When You're Most Stressed (Episode 27)

    After we sold our first business, Brandon and I finally had the money to put 20% down on our first home. What we didn’t have was permission. Our new business (the current one) was in a totally different industry ... and to a bank, that made our income brand new. It didn’t matter what was in the account. We needed two years of tax returns from the new business before anyone would lend to us. So we waited. We filed the second return the minute we could, in early February 2020. We closed and moved in on Friday, March 13th ... the same week the world shut down. We made it by the skin of our teeth. What stuck with me wasn’t the timing, though. We were ready long before the bank said we were. The bank decided when. Those same rules decide whether you can borrow against a house you already own. This week's question: If you needed $50,000 next month, whose permission would you need to get it?View more at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/ Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    The Bank Decides When You're Most Stressed (Episode 27)

  3. Oct 24

    So Far, So Good Started in 2009 (Episode 26)

    In 7th grade, I got into an argument with a classmate about which Brady Bunch daughter was the oldest. I said Jan. They pointed out that Jan was the one always saying, “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.” I didn’t budge. It was Marcia. I’ve never admitted that out loud until now. (To that classmate, whoever you are ... you were right.) That was TV trivia with nothing riding on it, and it still took me about thirty years. Admitting you were wrong about money is harder. Noticing what you’ve never lived through is harder still, because nobody’s standing there to point out Marcia. --- A few questions to test yours against the long one: * If the market went nowhere for ten years, which of your goals would still happen on time? * Could you go five years without selling an investment at a loss to cover real life? * If your business had a slow year at the same time the market did, where would the money come from? * When you say “it always comes back,” are you talking about the whole market ... or the specific things you own? If any of those made your stomach tighten, that’s worth knowing now, while it’s still so far, so good. Links and Sources:Substack: https://livecounterflow.substack.com Website: https://livecounterflow.com Free workshop, "You fixed cash flow. Now what?" : https://livecounterflow.com/pages/workshop Gallup: Percentage of Americans Who Own Stock: https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx Morningstar: How Bond Funds Performed in Q3 2026: https://www.morningstar.com/bonds/how-bond-funds-performed-q3-2026 Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    So Far, So Good Started in 2009 (Episode 26)

  4. Oct 17

    The Mission Trap (Episode 25)

    In May 2016, a couple of months after our first business turned five, I spoke to a class at a local university. I opened with a question. How many of you have been to a rally, an interest meeting, or a panel hosted by a nonprofit? Most of the hands went up. Then I told them what I’d noticed at almost every one of those gatherings. The people were passionate about their cause ... and the coffee was terrible. Folgers in a percolator, Styrofoam cups, fake creamer, and coffee grown by farmers living in extreme poverty, poured by people working hard to make the world better. It bothered me. How could people who cared that much about doing good in one area miss the harm they were doing in another? What I didn’t tell that class is that Brandon and I had spent years doing the same thing to ourselves. ... I’ve written before about the day our attorney asked how much we were paying ourselves, and the answer we didn’t want to say out loud. That story is here. ... What would your mission look like if it finally paid you? Leave a comment at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/. I read every one. Once your business is profitable, the profit needs somewhere to live. That’s what this month’s free workshop is about. You fixed cash flow. Now what? is Thursday, October 29, at noon Eastern. Save your seat. The workshop is the first thing on the new livecounterflow.com, which is now live. Everything I teach here has a home there now, starting with the Start Here page. Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    The Mission Trap (Episode 25)

  5. Oct 10

    It Agreed With Me (Episode 24)

    “No, let’s plan around 10%. That’s what I’m going to assume.” I typed that into ChatGPT. I was preparing for a presentation to real estate agents and I’d asked whether investing $2,000 a month for 15 years at a 10% return would let a hypothetical agent retire on $8,000 a month. Its first answer was careful. It ran the numbers, told me they’d end up with about $829,000, and warned me that 10% was optimistic. It also pointed out that $8,000 a month in today’s dollars would be closer to $12,000 a month in 15 years, which pushed the savings target to around $3.5 million. So I pushed back, the way plenty of people would. ... Have you asked AI about your money? I’d like to know whether it ever told you something you didn’t want to hear ... or whether it agreed with you, too. Comment and subscribe at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/. P.S. Brandon and I have been working on something new, and you’ll see it first in next Saturday's post. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe so it lands in your inbox. A note on the screenshots: I used ChatGPT as the example because it’s the tool most people reach for, not as an endorsement. ChatGPT carries its own warning that it can make mistakes. I checked the numbers I quote here, but I may not have caught every error in the screenshots. Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Oct 3

    Money Stops Running the Show (Episode 23)

    If you had $4 million in assets, no debt, and $70,000 a year of truly passive income, would you feel financially free? Maybe not as much as you’d think. ... So I’m asking you: what decision have you been making because money told you to... that you’d make differently if the Benjamins didn’t get a vote? Sit with that one before you answer it. It’s usually not the decision you think it is. Subscribe and comment at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/ Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    Money Stops Running the Show (Episode 23)

  7. Sep 26

    You Talk Too Much for How Young You Are (Episode 22)

    I was 21 the first time I was told I talked too much for how young I was. Then, 22 the second time. Two different leaders, two different rooms, months apart. Both said almost the exact same sentence. I found out later they’d talked about me in between ... the first had used that exact phrase with the other, who then repeated it to me verbatim. Participate in the comments at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/ When did you go quiet because someone told you to take up less space ... and what would it look like to take it back? The professional version of this conversation is live too. I sat down with Mark Willis on Not Your Average Financial Podcast to take Nice vs. Kind all the way through: financial advisors, policy loans, Profit First, retirement readiness, all of it. Listen right here, or find it as Episode 473. Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 19

    I Should Be Farther Along By Now (Episode 21)

    I wanted to be president of the United States. Not in the vague, anything’s-possible way kids get coached into saying ... I actually believed it, the way you believe things before anyone’s gotten around to telling you no. I’m still that kid some years. Brandon and I set genuinely lofty goals every January, revenue goals mostly, the kind with a real number attached, and most years we end up somewhere short of them. We both feel it. Brandon’s version runs darker than mine ... he’s a Gen Xer with all the jadedness and pessimism that’s stereotypical of his generation. Mine stays stubbornly optimistic. For me, even in October, there’s still time to catch up. In a great year, neither of us feels behind. In a flat year, or a down one, we both feel very far behind. Subscribe and comment at https://livecounterflow.substack.com/ What are you actually comparing yourself against when you feel like you should be farther along? Get full access to Live Counterflow at livecounterflow.substack.com/subscribe

    I Should Be Farther Along By Now (Episode 21)
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Most financial advice was designed for employees with W-2s and a 30-year runway. If you're a business owner or entrepreneur, you've probably already figured out that it wasn't built for you. Live Counterflow is for the ones the standard playbook missed. Hosted by Amanda Neely, CFP® — Bank on Yourself Professional and Profit First Professional — each episode covers the financial principles that actually work for business owners: liquidity before growth, building wealth without requiring perfect timing or heroic discipline, and designing your finances around your real life instead of an idealized version of it. New episodes every Saturday, tied to the Live Counterflow Substack at livecounterflow.substack.com. livecounterflow.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Amanda Neely
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    28
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amanda Neely
  • Show Website
    Live Counterflow

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