Chris Gure

RMD facts: → Born 1951–1959: RMDs start at 73 → Due Dec. 31. Your first can wait to April 1, then it's two in one year → Roth IRA: none for the original owner → Roth 401(k): none since 2024 Inherited accounts play by different rules.

"The financial plan is free." Then what are you paying for? Ask your advisor: → How are you paid if I say yes? → How are you paid if I say no? → Does anything you recommend pay you more? If they blink, that's an answer. (Every pay model has a conflict. Mine too.)

The Fed announces at 2pm today. Your plan doesn't have a 2pm. This afternoon: → Don't check your accounts at 2:01. → Don't trade off a press conference. → Remember what your plan already covers. If the plan only works when you guess the Fed right, the plan is the problem.

Selling your business? Know three numbers, not one: → The price → What you keep after debt, taxes and fees → What that has to replace Your salary, health insurance, car, phone, retirement plan. Sell, and it all stops the same day.

Grocery pickup exists and some of you are still wandering aisle 7. Respectfully, what are we doing.

46% of retirees stopped working earlier than they planned. That's EBRI's 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey. And 35% of those early retirees said it was because of changes at their company. So the retirement date on your spreadsheet? Somebody else might pick it. Here's the test I'd run this week. Pretend work ends next year: → What do you spend in a month? → Which account do you pull from first? → What's the tax bill on that withdrawal? → What would you cut, and what would you never cut? If you can't answer the second and third, that's the plan to build. Not a bigger number.

Nine. That's how many states don't tax a single dollar of your paycheck. → Alaska
→ Florida
→ Nevada
→ New Hampshire
→ South Dakota
→ Tennessee
→ Texas
→ Washington*
→ Wyoming Most people get Florida and Texas. Very few get to South Dakota or New Hampshire. Who do you think will be # 10?

Dinner table, 2027: "Dad, can I have $20?" "Ask your SpaceX position."

Client: Fed meets next week. Move to cash? Me: Then when do we move back? Client: When it feels safe. Me: Does it usually feel safe before prices go up, or after? Client: ... Me: Your next few years of spending aren't riding on this meeting. That was the point.

"Why should I defer income, how do we know what tax rates are going to be" Meanwhile, in North Carolina Income tax rate drops to 3.49% in 2027.

"I'm in the 22% bracket" doesn't mean you pay 22%. Hypothetical: single, $85K salary, 2026 rules. → Taxable after the $16,100 standard deduction: $68,900 → Federal income tax: about $9,870 → About 11.6% of salary Only the last $18,500 hits 22%.

Headlines today: "IRS can now take credit cards." You've been able to pay by card for 20+ years. The new rule just lets the IRS take it directly instead of handing you to a processor. The fee's still yours. Paying by card for points? What's your break-even?

Carter Payne, the College Game Day Kicker who dressed up like Spider Man just won $3,000,000. When they asked him what he was going to do with his winnings his first response was “401k!” BYU Finance Professors are doing something right!

"Fiduciary" is not a license. It's a word. Anyone can say it. This week I helped a client review a retail property marketed as NNN. National tenant, steady rent, nothing for the owner to do but cash the checks. Then you read the lease. It's not NNN. The landlord keeps the big ticket items on a building that's pushing 20 years old. (Roofs don't care what the brochure said.) The best part? On the call, the sellers' side described themselves as fiduciaries. There is no fiduciary police. Nobody checks the word at the door. If "they told me they were a fiduciary" is how you screen your advisor, broker, or any professional, ask better questions: → How are you paid if I say yes? How about if I say no?
→ Who is your boss? How are they getting paid? 
→ Are there any other investors in your company besides who I’m meeting with?
 Saying the word is free. Acting like one is the whole job.

If you're logging on this afternoon to make your 10/15 tax payment right up to the deadline. I have bad news....

The 4% rule sounds great in Barbie Land. Real life is a little more complicated. Would you advise a 35-year-old to spend 2%, 3%, 4%, or 5%?

A big national firm called one of our clients to warn him we “forgot” to remind him about his RMD. From his Roth IRA. Roth IRAs don’t have RMDs for the original owner. Never have. Advisors: what’s the wildest thing a competitor has told one of your clients?

These types of posts are extremely compelling. Too many people want to hear when the sky is going to fall. The cost of listening to these types of messages can be life changing. How are your investments doing since this was posted?