Advisory service for hybrid earners

A second set of eyes on your operator's stack.

The Hybrid Earner runs a paid advisory service for high-W-2 earners with side businesses. Two tiers. Fixed scope, fixed price. Educational review of the full picture — taxes, retirement contributions, real estate position, side-business structure — sized to the operator who already understands the moving parts and wants a written second opinion before the next consequential decision.

See the two tiers ↓ How this is different from a CPA, CFP, or RIA →
The gap

Why this service exists

Most personal-finance services are built around one credential and one specialty. A CPA prepares returns and answers tax-mechanic questions; the tax-planning conversation has to happen between February and April or it doesn't happen at all. A CFP runs comprehensive financial planning — useful when the question is "am I on track for retirement at 62," less useful when the question is "should I reprice my S-corp owner salary before opening a Solo 401(k) for the employer profit-share slot." An RIA manages investment portfolios and recommends specific securities. Each of those services is well-developed inside its own credential boundary. None of them, taken alone, covers the full operator's stack.

The hybrid earner — high W-2 income plus one or more side businesses, often plus real estate — lives in the intersection. The consequential decisions in this space tend to cross all three professional lines at once. The S-corp election that changes how the household's retirement contributions are structured. The short-term rental whose material-participation status determines whether the depreciation deduction lands against W-2 income. The mega-backdoor Roth pathway that interacts with both the W-2 employer's plan and the side-business Solo 401(k). The asset-location decision that depends on how the side-business cash flow is taxed at the entity level.

The publication exists because the integrated guide didn't. The advisory service exists because, after the article corpus is read, some operators want the equivalent of an editorial review on their own situation before they take the framework to their CPA, CFP, or RIA for execution.

That's what this service is. Not a replacement for the credentialed professionals. A written second opinion sized to the hybrid earner, calibrated to the situations the article corpus covers.

What you get

Two tiers. Fixed scope, fixed price.

Both tiers produce a written recommendation report sized to the operator's situation. The framework is the same in both. The self-service tier works off operator-stated facts and delivers a templated PDF in five business days. The premium tier adds document review, a 60-90 minute video session, and a custom multi-section report delivered within ten business days of the session.

Self-Service Analyzer

The structured second opinion

$99
Flat fee. PDF delivered within 5 business days.

A structured intake form, an analyzer that runs against your stated inputs, and a templated recommendation report delivered as a PDF within five business days. The framework is the same one the premium tier uses; the output is shorter (8-12 pages) and works off operator-stated facts rather than uploaded documents.

  • Structured intake covering income composition, entity structure, account inventory
  • Operator snapshot, tax-structure read, retirement-stack analysis, real-estate position
  • Asset-allocation framework, cross-account coordination, annual action items
  • Follow-up questions for your CPA, CFP, RIA, or attorney
  • Templated PDF (8-12 pages); no video session

Right for you when: You've read enough of the article corpus to know the moving parts. You want a structured second-opinion artifact written to your specific income composition, entity structure, and account inventory — without the price point of a full custom engagement. You're comfortable with the deliverable being framework-and-checklist, not custom narrative analysis.

Start the Self-Service Analyzer
Intake first, then payment. Full refund if the engagement is declined post-intake.
Premium 1:1

The full operator's-stack review

$1,500
Flat fee. ~3 weeks end-to-end.

A detailed intake form, a 60-90 minute video session with Andrew, and a custom multi-section recommendation report delivered within ten business days of the session. The report covers the full operator's stack with appendices for the source materials reviewed and the primary-source citations the report relies on. The deliverable targets 14-20 pages.

  • Everything in the Self-Service Analyzer
  • Detailed intake plus optional follow-up upload of relevant materials (tax return, paystub, side-business P&L, retirement statements, STR closing docs)
  • 60-90 minute video session with Andrew
  • Custom multi-section report (14-20 pages) with primary-source citations
  • Two follow-up email exchanges post-report

Right for you when: The situation has enough moving parts that a templated analyzer would compress the wrong things. You want the conversation itself — the back-and-forth where the framework gets tested against your actual numbers — and you want the written deliverable to capture what surfaced in the session, with explicit cross-references to the statutes, regulations, and case law the framing rests on.

Start the Premium 1:1
Intake first, then payment, then session booking.
Scope

What this service does — and what it does not

Both tiers are educational review and discussion. The deliverable in each case is a written recommendation report sized to the operator's situation, organized around the framework the article corpus uses. The integrity of the service depends on the scope being clear before the operator engages — the things this service does not do are things specialized credentials exist to do well, and the report is designed to send the operator to those specialists with the right questions in hand.

What this service does

  • Tax-structure assessment — entity election read, marginal- and effective-rate position, QBI deduction posture, structural moves available within the current setup.
  • Retirement-stack analysis — every tax-advantaged account currently open, every account that could be opened, contribution capacity sitting unused, fill-order recommendation across the stack.
  • Real-estate position — if applicable, property-by-property tax posture, §469 classification, material-participation status, depreciation position, cost-segregation candidacy.
  • Asset-allocation framework — household-level allocation read and asset-location framework (which categories of assets belong in which account types); framework-level, not specific-security recommendations.
  • Side-business optimization — if applicable, S-corp reasonable-compensation read, retirement-plan layering on top of the side business, cross-account interactions with the W-2 side.
  • Cross-account coordination — the interactions that produce real dollars when correctly sequenced and real penalties when missed.
  • Annual action items — five to seven specific moves the operator should run within the next twelve months, sequenced and dated.
  • Follow-up questions — the specific items to take to your CPA, CFP, RIA, or attorney for execution, with section references back to the report.

What this service does not doLegal review pending

  • Recommend specific securities, funds, or investment products. The asset-allocation work is framework-level. Specific portfolio construction and fund-vehicle selection is the lane of a registered investment adviser.
  • Manage investment accounts or exercise discretion over assets. The Hybrid Earner does not hold, control, or have access to client funds or securities at any point.
  • Prepare or file tax returns. Return preparation is the work of a Certified Public Accountant or Enrolled Agent. The report frames the structural moves; the return is filed by the operator's tax preparer.
  • Render Circular 230 written advice on specific transactions. Where a recommendation touches a transaction with material tax-avoidance or tax-evasion potential, the operator engages a CPA, EA, or tax attorney to provide the covered written advice.
  • Provide comprehensive financial planning in the CFP sense. A CFP delivers an integrated plan covering insurance adequacy, estate-plan integration, cash-flow modeling, and retirement-distribution sequencing. The advisory service is narrower — operator's-stack review, not full lifetime financial plan.
  • Establish an ongoing fiduciary or advisory relationship. Each engagement is a single deliverable. The service does not contemplate an ongoing planning relationship.
  • Provide legal advice. Entity-structure questions, multi-state nexus, and employment-classification questions are flagged for the operator's attorney. The report names the questions; the lawyer answers them.
  • Recommend specific insurance products or carriers. Where insurance adequacy surfaces, the operator takes the question to an independent broker.

The Hybrid Earner is not a registered investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 or any state securities law, is not a Certified Financial Planner, and is not a Certified Public Accountant or Enrolled Agent. The full scope statement sits at the bottom of this page.

The process

How it works

Self-Service Analyzer — four steps

  1. Complete the structured intake. The form takes 25-40 minutes and asks for income composition, entity structure, account inventory, and the two or three operator constraints that shape every recommendation. No document upload required at this tier.
  2. Analyzer processes the inputs. The framework runs against your stated facts and the templated report sections are populated.
  3. Editorial review. A human editorial pass is part of every report — the analyzer drafts, the editor verifies the framework was applied correctly, the report is signed off before delivery.
  4. PDF delivered to your email within five business days.

Premium 1:1 — five steps

  1. Complete the detailed intake. The intake takes 45-75 minutes and includes the full operator's-stack questionnaire.
  2. Provide supporting materials (optional). Recent tax return, current YTD paystub(s), side-business P&L, retirement-account statements, STR closing documents if applicable. Materials are reviewed in advance of the session.
  3. Schedule the 60-90 minute video session with Andrew. Scheduling opens once intake is complete. The session lands within ten business days.
  4. Session runs. Andrew has reviewed the intake and materials in advance; the time is spent on the back-and-forth that tests the framework against the actual situation. The agenda is shared 24 hours ahead so the operator knows what's covered.
  5. Custom report delivered to your email within ten business days of the session.
Fit

Who this is calibrated to — and who it isn't for

The advisory service is built for the same reader the article corpus serves. The framing cuts both ways: the service is structurally not the right fit for several specific situations, and the publication will say so directly rather than take an engagement that won't deliver value.

Who this is calibrated to

  • W-2 income above roughly $200,000 for the primary earner, or combined household W-2 income above $300,000 where the second earner is also W-2.
  • Active side-business income — sole-proprietorship, single-member LLC, S-corp, or partnership, with net business income in the range the article corpus addresses (roughly $25,000 to $500,000 annually).
  • At least one of the following: an S-corp election decision recently made or pending; retirement-stack layering across W-2 and side-business plans; STR or LTR position with material-participation, depreciation, or cost-segregation questions; reasonable-compensation pressure at the S-corp level; mega-backdoor or backdoor Roth strategy considerations; QBI phaseout interaction with retirement contributions; cross-account coordination questions where two or more accounts interact in non-obvious ways.

If the situation matches two or more of those bullets, the framework is likely well-calibrated to the work.

Who this service is not for

  • W-2 employees without side-business income. The article corpus is enough; without a side business, the integration question disappears and the analysis collapses to W-2-only personal finance, which is well-covered elsewhere.
  • Side-business operators without W-2 income. Pure entrepreneurs with no W-2 employer are better served by a small-business CPA or fractional CFO.
  • Households with investable assets above roughly $5 million. At that asset level, a multi-family-office practice, comprehensive wealth-management RIA, or estate-planning attorney-led integrated team is the right model.
  • Operators looking for investment management. If the question is "manage my portfolio," the answer is an RIA, not this.
  • Operators looking for return preparation. A CPA or EA is the right answer; this service is structurally complementary, not substitute.
  • Operators looking for an ongoing advisory relationship. Each engagement is a single deliverable. No retainer, no subscription.

If the publication believes the service won't deliver value for the situation described in your intake, the engagement is declined and the intake fee is refunded in full.

Pricing

Why the prices are what they are

The pricing rests on the cost of the work, not on what the market will bear.

The premium tier reflects roughly six hours of integrated review across the operator's stack — intake review, document review, the 60-90 minute session itself, post-session report drafting, citation verification, and editorial review before delivery. At the rate practitioners in adjacent fields charge for comparable scope (the boutique "second opinion" flat-fee written reviews surfaced in the research range $1,000 to $3,500), the premium tier sits squarely in the middle of the comparable band, with the calibration to hybrid-earner specifics those services don't carry.

The self-service tier reflects the cost of a standardized analyzer output plus a human editorial pass. The framework is the same; the per-engagement labor is lower because the deliverable is templated rather than custom. The price point reflects what the deliverable is — a structured second-opinion artifact, not custom analysis. The publication will say that directly rather than dress the analyzer up as a full custom engagement at a lower price.

No discount campaigns, no introductory pricing, no "limited spots" framing. The price is the price. If the work doesn't fit the price, the engagement is declined.

Frequently asked

Questions readers ask

How is this different from working with a CPA, CFP, or RIA?

A CPA prepares returns and answers tax-mechanic questions; the tax-planning conversation usually happens incidentally to return prep. A CFP delivers a comprehensive financial plan covering insurance, estate, cash-flow, and retirement distribution. An RIA manages investment accounts and recommends specific securities. This service is narrower than any of them — it's an integrated educational review of the operator's stack, calibrated to the hybrid-earner intersection, designed to send the operator to those professionals with the right questions in hand. It is not a substitute for any of them.

What if the recommendations require outside-specialist follow-up?

Every report's final section is the explicit referral framework — questions to take to your CPA or EA, questions for your CFP, questions for your RIA, questions for your attorney, questions for your insurance broker. The frameworks are the work this service does; the execution sits with the credentialed professionals. The publication does not refer to specific firms or individuals.

What's the refund policy?

For the self-service tier: full refund if the analyzer cannot meaningfully populate the framework against the inputs provided. The decision sits with the editor before delivery; the refund issues automatically if the engagement is declined post-intake. For the premium tier: full refund if Andrew declines the engagement after reviewing the intake. After the video session has run, the report deliverable is non-refundable; if substantive concerns surface about the report's framing, the publication addresses them via revision, not refund.

How is data handled?

The intake form collects line-item data only — income ranges, entity structure, contribution amounts, allocation percentages. No tax returns or paystubs are uploaded through the public-facing intake. The premium tier may request additional materials directly from the client after the engagement is confirmed; those materials are handled per the engagement letter's data-handling terms. The full privacy posture sits in the Privacy Policy.

Can the video session be rescheduled?

Yes. The scheduling window is generous — sessions can be moved without penalty up to 24 hours before the scheduled start. Inside the 24-hour window, one no-cost reschedule is available per engagement; subsequent reschedules carry a $150 fee that covers Andrew's pre-session preparation time.

Can I engage again later?

Yes. Repeat engagements are common — operators frequently return for a second review when a consequential decision approaches (an S-corp election, a property acquisition, a job change that restructures the W-2 plan). Each engagement is independently scoped and priced; there is no retainer, no subscription, no implied ongoing relationship.

Does the report tell me what to buy?

No. The report explicitly does not recommend specific securities, funds, or investment products. The asset-allocation work is framework-level. Specific portfolio construction is the lane of a registered investment adviser; this report frames the question for that conversation rather than answering it directly.

What if I'm not sure which tier is right?

If the operator's stack has fewer than two of the qualifying situations in the fit section, the self-service tier is almost certainly enough. If the situation has three or more, or if the questions cross multiple categories in non-obvious ways, the premium tier is structured for that. If the call is genuinely close, start with the self-service tier — the framework is the same and the report itself will surface whether a follow-on premium engagement is warranted.

Begin

Start where it fits

Three short screens. Line-item data only — no documents uploaded through this form. After you submit, you'll be sent to a Stripe payment link for the tier you selected. Newsletter signup is included by default with the consent checkbox; opt out below if you'd rather not.

Step 1 — Tier and household

Choose the tier you want to engage, then a few household basics that calibrate the rest of the form.

Please choose a tier.
Where the report and payment-link will be sent.
Please enter a valid email address.
Please choose your filing status.
Please choose your state.

Step 2 — Income, business, retirement

Income composition and retirement stack. Ranges only — no exact dollar figures required.

Please choose your W-2 range.
Please choose a range.
Please choose a range.
Please choose a structure.
Please choose a range.
Dollar figure; commas okay.

Step 3 — Real estate, allocation, concerns

Real-estate position (if any), portfolio allocation, and what brought you to the engagement.

Please choose one.
Relevant to §469 / material-participation analysis.
~500 character limit. Optional but useful.

Intake received.

Thanks. You'll be redirected to the secure Stripe checkout for the tier you selected. If the redirect doesn't fire automatically, use the link below.

Continue to payment →

A confirmation email is on its way. After payment, your next-step instructions arrive in a second email.

If the engagement isn't right yet

The newsletter is where the rest of the work lives.

Not ready to engage yet? Subscribe to the newsletter and read for a while first. The article corpus is enough for many of the situations the advisory service is built around — the service is what you reach for when the integration question gets ahead of where the corpus reaches.

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