Guidant Financial Group Blog

While we’re not in love with the word-choice for the article’s title, we do like the fact that CNN.com highlighted Guidant client Paul Cardosi’s success story.

Raiding the Retirement Fund to Keep the Business Afloat mainly focuses on entrepreneurs who took advantage of their funds the old fashioned – and very expensive – way (aka: a distribution). And, as the title alludes, financing or bailing out a business this way can leave a person in debt and with no retirement account.

The great thing about the Guidant solution is that it alleviates both of these problems. Because the retirement funds are invested directly into the business itself, there is no expensive distribution and the retirement account stays intact – and, if your business goes well, it continues growing!

We wish the reporter had lead off with Cardosi’s story, as it would have been a much more enlightening tale, but we are glad that main-stream media is finally taking notice of this unique financing option that’s been available for many years.

Cardosi, after spending 28 years in the corporate world, came to Guidant to invest his 401(k) into a self-storage business in Phoenix, Ariz. Six months after making the initial investment, Cardosi’s business is up 200% from when it was sold by the previous owner.

“The 401(k) owns the majority of the business,” he told CNN. “I haven’t lost the money, I just invested it. When I sell, the money goes back into the 401(k).”

Now, how many of you can say your 401(k) just made a 200% return on investment?