tag / Money Management
Why I Keep Investing Simple, Focus on My Work, and Treat Wealth Like Physical Fitness My investment strategy is intentionally simple — not because I don’t understand complexity, but because I understand where complexity actually belongs. I buy VT — Vanguard Total World Stock ETF — and then I go to sleep. That...
When major downturns hit—real ones, not the everyday noise—I don’t panic. I don’t freeze. And I don’t pretend I can predict the exact bottom. I prepare for 30–40% market drawdowns, because history says they will happen. The question isn’t if—it’s how you react when they do. When pre-tax, tax-deferred accounts...
What in the World Is a QPLO? A Qualified Plan Loan Offset (QPLO) is one of the most misunderstood mechanics in retirement planning, largely because it sits at the intersection of 401(k) loan rules, job transitions, and tax reporting, and most people only ever learned the old version of how this worked....
Liquidity, Control, and the Emotional Safety of Accessible Capital As one of my readers, I know you already know this about me: I am a big fan of investing heavily in pre-tax accounts early and then methodically converting those dollars into Roth accounts over time. That framework has served me...
FIT & WHEALTHY Convert. Don’t Sell. Use the Dip. A practical post on using market drawdowns to make strategic Roth conversions, while still preserving the option to direct-contribute to a Roth IRA when you’re near the income limits. Market resilience MAGI mechanics In-plan & IRA conversions Pre-tax saturation gauge The...
The Pre-Tax 401(k) as a “Staging Area” → Roth as the Destination (with Calculators) Educational model (not tax/legal advice). Roth IRA eligibility uses IRS Pub 590-A Worksheet 2-1 mechanics (conversion income is subtracted back out when computing “MAGI for Roth IRA purposes”). This widget does not assume in-plan Roth 401(k)...
In America, value is often discarded long before it’s actually gone. Cars are the clearest example. Most vehicles aren’t replaced because they’re unsafe, unreliable, or unusable. They’re replaced because the body style changed, the tech feels dated, warranties expire, or expectations reset. The car didn’t fail — the story around the car...
How buying undervalued homes can build communities and accelerate financial independence For decades, housing markets didn’t price homes based purely on fundamentals. They priced them based on who had access — to neighborhoods, to credit, to fair appraisals, and to opportunity. Redlining may be illegal today, but its financial aftershocks...
Most people think Roth conversions are something you worry about later in life—your 40s, your 50s, maybe even early retirement. That mindset is backwards. If Trump Accounts roll out the way they’re being discussed, the most powerful Roth conversion window may actually be ages 18 through 30—long before most people even...
Politics Aside. Let’s talk about Trump Accounts for a second—because if these accounts roll out the way they’re being discussed, they could quietly become one of the most powerful long-term wealth-building tools we’ve ever seen for children. Not flashy. Not speculative. Just math, time, and discipline. And those three things have always...
