There are those who seize control of their financial life—and then there are those who wake up to find a variable annuity in their IRA.
Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.
Richard Connor is a semi-retired aerospace engineer with a keen interest in finance. He enjoys a wide variety of other interests, including chasing grandkids, space, sports, travel, winemaking and reading. Follow Rick on Twitter @RConnor609 and check out his earlier articles.NO. 59: MOST FOLKS should avoid alternative investments. Yes, they promise returns uncorrelated with the stock market and gains when shares are tumbling. But isn’t that why we own bonds?
ALERT U.S. EMBASSIES to your travel plans. Before leaving on a foreign trip, sign up for the State Department's free Smart Traveler Enrollment Program and detail where you’re going. The local U.S. embassy or consulate will then contact you if, say, there’s a natural disaster or terrorist incident while you’re traveling abroad—and it may be able to offer advice or help.
INFLATION RISK. Suppose inflation runs at 2.5% a year. If you were living off a traditional employer pension or interest from long-term bonds, your income would lose more than half its spending power over a 30-year retirement. What to do? You might keep more in stocks, while also delaying Social Security so you have more inflation-indexed income.
NO. 64: WE MAY feel stuck—but often others can point the way forward. We’ve all struggled with seemingly intractable problems, mulling them over and over, trying to figure out the answer. But sometimes, the solution isn’t to think harder. Instead, it’s to ask others, who will have a different perspective—and may suggest solutions that hadn’t occurred to us.
NO. 59: MOST FOLKS should avoid alternative investments. Yes, they promise returns uncorrelated with the stock market and gains when shares are tumbling. But isn’t that why we own bonds?
The Washington Post has an article on yet another effort to cut taxes for the wealthy. This time it is stepping up the cost basis for capital gains to account for inflation. You’d think they’d at least wait for the dust to settle from the recent give away.
I don’t know whether the article is behind the pay wall, it’s not giving me an option to share it so I did a straight copy.
THE IRS RECENTLY announced inflation adjustments for the tax year 2026.
2 quick changes:
Standard deduction
For single taxpayers, the standard deduction rises to $16,100 for 2026, an increase of $350 from 2025.
For married couples filing jointly, the standard deduction rises to $32,200, an increase of $700 from tax year 2025.
Capital Gains Rates
For single taxpayers, long-term capital gains are taxed at 0% if the taxable income is up to $49,450 ($98,900 for married couples filing jointly).
I get a lot of questions from W-2 employees asking, “How can I save money on taxes?”
Many people know that business owners have a lot of flexibility to lower their tax bill, but what about W-2 workers? I’ll skip some of the more “obvious” strategies, like:
401(k)
Backdoor Roth
HSA/FSA
Here are some other ones you might want to think about:
Commuter benefits
Some companies offer pre-tax commuter benefits that can be used for transportation expenses such as transit passes or parking.
THE IRS JUST released a new form called Schedule 1-A, which includes all the new tax bill deductions.
I wanted to quickly go through some of it, so that you are more aware of the new potential savings opportunities.
I’ve previously discussed some portions of the bill, but this is the first time we have a peek of the new lines.
All of these deductions are in addition to the standard deduction or itemized deduction.
I thank everyone in advance for any assistance and advice you can provide regarding my Roth conversion scenario. I am currently 56 with a potential retirement age of 58 (approx. 2 yrs). My wife is younger and will continue working for another 8 years following my retirement. I plan on deferring Social Security as long as possible, age 70. I have $850,000 in a regular IRA and an additional $600,000 in a company sponsored 401K. My wife and I file jointly and are currently in the 24% tax bracket ($206,700- $394,600).
Perhaps what we should be debating is which is the most important line on the tax return. I can tell you that most would say line 34, “this is the amount you overpaid, or line 37, “this is the amount you owe. I contend line 24 matters most, “this is your total tax”. Rarely, and I mean well under 1% of the time, did a client ask me how much tax they paid. As a matter of fact,
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