When Washington Shuts Down, but Markets Don’t     Every few years, Washington reminds everyone how broken the system can feel. The government shuts down, federal workers are furloughed, and Americans are forced to watch the same tired debates play out again. It’s easy to think this chaos would shake up the stock market, but...Read More

Don’t Forget the IRS Wants Their Cut    Every December, the same thing happens. Someone calls in a panic because they just realized, usually on December 29, that they forgot to take their required minimum distribution, or RMD. The tone is always the same. Frazzled, rushed, a little embarrassed, followed by the inevitable question: can...Read More

Fed Cuts, Mortgage Rates Climb: What It Means for You   On September 17, 2025, the Federal Reserve cut its short-term interest rate by a quarter of a percent. Many homeowners expected mortgage rates to drop the next day. They did not. Thirty-year mortgage quotes and long-term bond yields moved higher.    This is not...Read More

How We Helped a Client Unwind a $640K Position, Without the $197K Tax Hit     I have a client who lives in Ramsey who in 2015, took a risk and invested $40,000 into a company he believed in: Nvidia. He didn’t trade. Didn’t follow daily market noise. He just held. Through every wave of fear...Read More

Mastering the Mind: The Empty Boat and the Biases That Steer Your Finances    Money is supposed to be rational. Numbers are objective. Yet when we deal with money, our emotions and instincts have a way of slipping into the driver’s seat. The real challenge in financial planning is not always the market or the...Read More

Tariffs Are A Hidden Tax We All Pay     Tariffs sound like something out of an economics textbook. They are not abstract. They show up in the price of clothes, groceries, cars, and appliances. You never see tariff on a receipt. You just notice things cost more. ­ The Budget Lab at Yale estimates the...Read More

The Overlooked Social Security Rules That Can Make or Break Retirement     Social Security has a way of turning a basic idea into something that feels like a government riddle. You work, you pay in, you collect one day. Except real life is messier than that. People get married, divorced, remarried, widowed. Work history...Read More

Active vs Passive in 2025: Who’s Winning?   Cutting Through the Noise   There’s always noise in investing. Fund managers make big promises. Wall Street insiders often claim to possess special insights. Influencers pitch hot stocks like side gigs. But beyond all that noise, one question matters: Does active management really beat simple indexing?  ...Read More

Who’s Shaking the Jar?   There’s this viral story floating around the internet that goes something like this: You put 100 black ants and 100 red ants in a jar. Nothing happens. But shake the jar? Chaos. The ants start attacking each other, each thinking the other is the enemy. The lesson? The real enemy isn’t...Read More

The Sugar High of Hype: Why True Financial Planning Isn’t Sexy… But It Works Back in 2023, you couldn’t walk into a middle school or youth lacrosse game without seeing some kid flexing a bottle of Prime like it was a Rolex. It was the status symbol. Created by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul, Prime...Read More