Opulus Method

7 Questions That Reveal If Your CPA Is a Planner or a Filer

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:13:07 GMT

A client sat down with us this week. Best income year of his life in 2025.

Then the tax bill came. Bigger than he expected, with underpayment penalties stacked on top. And the first estimated payment for 2026? Already missed.

His CPA’s advice: set aside some extra cash, just in case you owe again.

No projection. No plan. No moves to actually bring the number down before the year closed.

He wasn’t angry at his CPA. He was confused.

He thought he’d hired someone to be a tax planner. What he’d hired was someone to file them.

Those are two different jobs. And most high earners don’t find out which one they’re paying for until the bill lands.

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The part that actually costs you

The penalties sting. But they’re not the real cost.

A surprise tax bill means the year is already over. Everything that could have changed the number happened months ago, while no one was paying attention.

That’s the part that quietly adds up. The QBI deduction that was never structured for. The backdoor Roth that never got set up. The HSA that got overlooked. The RSU sale timed with no eye on your bracket. The estimated payments left to guesswork. Every one of those is a legal lever—and every one has a window that closes before April.

By the time you’re filing, there’s nothing left to do but report what happened. You’re not planning anymore. You’re just writing it down.

And next year, unless something changes, the same surprise is waiting.

Two jobs pointed in opposite directions

So why does the same surprise keep happening, year after year?

Because the two jobs don’t just differ. They point in opposite directions.

A preparer looks backward. Their work starts after the year ends, with the documents you send in. The job is to report what already happened, accurately and on time. A good one does exactly that.

A planner looks forward. Their work happens during the year, when the outcome can still move. Projections in the spring. Adjustments in the fall. Real moves made while the year is open.

One records the score. The other helps you change it.

Most high earners hired the first and assumed they were getting the second. That’s the whole problem in a sentence.

What planning actually looks like

Picture the other version.

You hear from your tax planner in the spring, not to file but to project. Here’s where your income is trending. Here’s what we should adjust before year-end. Here’s the lever worth pulling while the window’s still open.

You talk again mid-year. Again in the fall. By the time the return is due, there’s nothing to brace for, because you spent the whole year shaping the number instead of waiting to find out what it became.

That’s not a fantasy. It’s just a different relationship—one built to look ahead instead of catching up.

And the calendar is already moving. The first estimated payment for 2026 is behind us. The next one is due June 15. A planner is thinking about that right now and every strategy you should be using. A preparer isn’t. That was never the job.

So the only question that matters is which one you actually hired.

The 7 questions to ask your CPA

This is the part that decides whether next April feels different.

You don't have to guess which kind of CPA you have. You can just ask, and you'll know fast. Schedule a short call, twenty minutes is plenty, and put these seven questions in front of your CPA, or any CPA you're considering:

How many of your clients earn in my income range?
Do you do year-round planning, or mainly annual prep?
What’s your experience with strategies like the QBI deduction, backdoor Roth conversions, or RSU timing?
How do you stay current on tax law changes?
Do you coordinate with my financial advisor and attorney?
What’s our communication cadence outside of tax season?
Can you connect me with a client in a situation like mine?

The pattern is easy to hear once you know it.

A preparer gives vague, defensive answers and leans on credentials.

A planner does the opposite. Specific answers, real examples, easy talk of working alongside the rest of your team.

You’ll know within minutes which one you’re sitting across from.

One more thing, because it matters: a preparer isn’t the wrong answer for everyone.

If your situation is straightforward and you want a clean, accurate return, that relationship is a fine fit. The goal isn’t to fire anyone. It’s to know exactly what you’re paying for—so the gap between what you expect and what you get finally closes.

That’s it.

My client walked out of that meeting clearer than when he walked in. Not because his old CPA was bad at the job, but because he finally understood which job he’d been paying for.

That’s the shift.

The frustration you felt this spring isn’t a sign you made a mistake. It’s information. It’s telling you the relationship you have and the one you assumed you had aren’t the same.

You can find out which is which in twenty minutes. And you can find out now, while the year is still open, instead of next April, when it’s already closed.

You can’t change the bill you just paid. But you can change the next one.

And it starts with a single conversation.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 3,200+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

Opulus, LLC (“Opulus”) is a registered investment advisor in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions where exempted. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training.

The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments, nor does it endorse any specific company, security, or investment strategy. Readers should not rely on this content as the sole basis for any investment or financial decisions.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. There is no guarantee that any investment strategies discussed will result in profits or avoid losses.

All information is provided “as-is” without any warranties, express or implied. Opulus does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Opinions expressed are those of the authors, Ryan Greiser and Francis Walsh, and are subject to change without notice.

Opulus is not responsible for any errors or omissions, nor for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages resulting from the use or reliance on this information. Use of the content is at your own risk. This content is not intended as an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal.

Why Wealthy Investors Borrow Against Their Portfolio - and When It Backfires

Fran Walsh — Tue, 26 May 2026 11:01:43 GMT

We get asked about these regularly. A client hears about them from a friend, someone mentions it in a meeting, or someone reads that wealthy investors use them to avoid selling appreciated positions. The concept sounds elegant. Borrow against what you already own, stay invested, skip the tax event.

And in the right situation, with the right structure, they can be exactly that. But we’ve also seen them go wrong in ways that are genuinely painful - forced sales near market bottoms, unexpected tax bills, and portfolios that looked comfortable until the market moved and suddenly weren’t.

This week we’re breaking down how securities-backed lines of credit actually work, what the risk mechanics look like in practice, and the patterns we see most often when they become a problem.

Let’s dig in

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What an SBLOC Actually Is

A securities-backed line of credit lets you borrow against your taxable brokerage account - typically up to 50-70% of its value, depending on what you hold. The credit line opens. Your portfolio stays invested. No securities are sold. No taxable event is triggered at origination.

For high earners with concentrated, appreciated positions, the appeal is straightforward. You need liquidity - for a real estate deal, a business opportunity, a bridge between transactions - but selling to raise cash means triggering capital gains on positions you’ve held for years. An SBLOC offers a third option: access the capital without selling.

On paper, the math can work. In practice, the outcome depends almost entirely on what happens after you borrow.

How the Collateral Mechanics Work

Lenders assign a lendable value to each security in your portfolio - typically 50-70% of market value for equities, though concentrated positions, less liquid holdings, or more volatile securities may receive lower lendable values.

On a $2 million portfolio at 65% lendable value, your maximum line may be approximately $1.3 million. That’s illustrative - actual terms vary by lender, account composition, and your overall relationship.

Here’s where it gets important: that lendable value moves with the market. It isn’t fixed at origination. When your portfolio value drops, your lendable value drops with it. And if it drops far enough that the lendable value falls below your outstanding loan balance, a maintenance call may come.

What a Maintenance Call Actually Looks Like

This is the scenario most people don’t fully think through when they open the line.

Say you borrow $800,000 against a $2 million portfolio. At 65% lendable value, your collateral supports approximately $1.3 million. You have meaningful cushion.

Markets drop 30%. Your portfolio is now worth $1.4 million. Lendable value: approximately $910,000. Still above your $800,000 balance - but the buffer has narrowed considerably.

Another 10% decline. Portfolio: approximately $1.26 million. Lendable value: approximately $819,000. You’re approaching the threshold.

One more move down, and the call may come. When it does, you typically have two to three days to respond. Your options at that point are generally to deposit cash to restore the collateral cushion, deposit additional securities, or repay part of the loan.

If you can’t do any of those - the lender may sell your securities. They may choose which positions to sell. At whatever price the market is offering at that moment.

Why Forced Liquidation Can Make a Bad Situation Worse

Here’s what makes a maintenance call scenario particularly damaging. The market has just dropped - that’s what triggered the call. And now positions you’ve held for years, with embedded long-term gains, may be sold near that bottom.

The result may include a portfolio that’s down 30-40%, forced sales at depressed prices, and a capital gains tax bill arriving in the same calendar year. The portfolio took the loss and generated the tax liability simultaneously.

This isn’t a hypothetical worst case. It’s a sequence of events that played out for a number of SBLOC borrowers in 2022.

2022: The Double Squeeze

2022 illustrated a specific risk that floating-rate SBLOC borrowers didn’t fully account for going in.

The Federal Reserve raised rates sharply throughout the year. Borrowing costs on floating rate lines increased significantly - in some cases doubling or more from where they started.

At the same time, the S&P 500 dropped approximately 20% on the year. Growth-heavy portfolios fared considerably worse. For borrowers with concentrated technology or growth positions pledged as collateral, the lendable value decline was more severe than the headline index suggested.

Both happened simultaneously. The cost of carrying the loan went up. The collateral supporting it went down. For borrowers who had structured the line with little buffer and no outside liquidity, that combination created real pressure very quickly.

When SBLOCs May Make Sense

This isn’t a tool to avoid categorically. For the right borrower in the right situation, an SBLOC may be a genuinely useful liquidity tool.

Situations where they may make sense include short-term bridge financing where liquidity is arriving in a defined timeframe - a property closing, a business sale, a bonus - and the line is being used to bridge a known gap. They may also make sense when the alternative is triggering a large capital gains event on a long-held position, and the borrower has significant liquid assets outside the pledged portfolio to meet a potential call without touching it.

The key question is this: if markets dropped 30-40% tomorrow, could you repay or post additional collateral without selling from the pledged portfolio? If the honest answer is no, that’s worth sitting with before drawing on the line.

Patterns We See Go Wrong

In working with clients who’ve used or considered SBLOCs, a few patterns come up when things go sideways.

Borrowing the maximum with no buffer for a market decline. The lendable value at origination is a ceiling, not a target - most advisors would suggest borrowing well below it to preserve room for portfolio movement.

Using the line for ongoing expenses with no repayment plan. An SBLOC structured as a revolving credit facility for lifestyle spending, with no mechanism to pay it down, is leverage that compounds over time.

Pledging the entire taxable portfolio with nothing outside. If the only assets available to meet a maintenance call are inside the pledged account, every market decline becomes a potential forced liquidation scenario.

Assuming the line stays open. Lenders may reduce or freeze the line at any time - often precisely when markets are declining and you might most want to access it.

Missing the floating rate risk. If rates rise while you’re carrying a balance, the cost of the loan increases whether you want it to or not.

Bottom Line

SBLOCs are marketed as a sophisticated wealth management tool. For a specific type of borrower - one with significant liquidity outside the pledged portfolio, a defined repayment timeline, and a clear purpose for the capital - they may live up to that description.

But leverage on a volatile asset, no repayment plan, and no outside liquidity is a combination that can unravel quickly when markets move. And markets always move eventually.

SBLOCs let you borrow against a taxable portfolio - typically 50-70% of lendable value - without selling or triggering a taxable event at origination
Lendable value moves with the market - a significant decline may trigger a maintenance call requiring cash, additional collateral, or loan repayment within days
If you can’t meet a call, the lender may sell your positions at depressed prices, potentially triggering taxable gains in the same year
2022 demonstrated a double squeeze - rising rates increased carry costs while falling markets reduced collateral simultaneously
The borrowers most at risk are those without liquidity outside the pledged account and no defined repayment plan

Before considering an SBLOC, the most important question to ask isn’t “how much can I borrow?” It’s “what happens to this plan if markets drop 30% next month?”

If the answer is uncomfortable, that discomfort is useful information.

See you next week.

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- Fran

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 3,200+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The Inherited IRA Lever Most High Earners Never Pull

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 19 May 2026 11:02:30 GMT

Two couples inherit a $1,000,000 traditional IRA. Same age. Same household income. Same drawdown plan—ten years, even distributions.

One lives in Pennsylvania.

The other lives in New Jersey, ten miles east.

Ten years later, the Pennsylvania couple has $127,713 more than their neighbors—on the exact same inheritance, with the exact same investments. No tax shelter. No fancy strategy. Just the state where the distributions hit their tax return.

A client of ours is about to inherit a portfolio like this. A family member’s health is failing, and they’re stepping in to help plan around what’s coming.

Residency turned out to be the biggest lever on the table. Most people never realize it’s there.

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The bill you’d never see on a Vanguard statement

Most beneficiaries assume the math is simple. You inherit an IRA, the federal government takes its cut, and whatever’s left is yours.

The federal piece is roughly true. Distributions from an inherited traditional IRA stack on top of your W-2 income and get taxed at your marginal federal rate. For a couple earning $500,000 in their primary careers, most of a $1,000,000 inheritance lands in the 32% and 35% brackets. About $485,000 over ten years goes to federal tax. That number is the same in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, or Wyoming. Federal tax doesn’t care where you live.

What changes is the second layer.

Pennsylvania exempts inherited IRA distributions from state income tax when the original account owner was over 59½ at death. Every dollar that comes out of that account, principal and growth alike, skips Pennsylvania’s 3.07% flat tax entirely. The state treats it as if the income never happened.

New Jersey doesn’t. Every dollar of a traditional inherited IRA distribution is taxable income in New Jersey, taxed at the same graduated rates as wages. On a $500,000 household income with $142,378 per year in IRA distributions, that distribution lands squarely in New Jersey’s 8.97% bracket.

Over ten years, that’s $127,713 the Pennsylvania couple keeps and the New Jersey couple doesn’t.

Same inheritance. Same investments. Same distribution strategy. A six-figure difference written entirely by which side of the Delaware River you happen to live on.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey happen to make for a clean comparison because they sit ten miles apart with dramatically different rules.

But the same pattern exists wherever you draw the lines. Some states—Florida, Texas, Nevada, Wyoming, and others with no income tax—charge zero on inherited IRA distributions the same way Pennsylvania does. Others tax them in full, with California reaching 13.3% at the top and New York reaching nearly 11% at the highest brackets.

The dollars change, but the mechanism doesn’t.

Why the gap is bigger than it looks

Here’s the part most people miss. When you read “New Jersey taxes IRA distributions up to 10.75%,” it’s easy to assume the average rate would be modest. Spread across the lower brackets, you’d expect something closer to 4 or 5%. That’s not how it works for high earners.

By the time your W-2 income hits $500,000, you’ve already filled New Jersey’s lower brackets. The 1.4% bracket, the 1.75%, the 3.5%, the 5.525%, the 6.37%, all spoken for by your wages. So when the inherited IRA distribution arrives on top of that, it doesn’t start at the bottom of the tax table. It starts where your wages left off, which is the 8.97% bracket.

The whole distribution lands there. Every $142,378 of inherited IRA income, every year, taxed at 8.97% from the first dollar to the last.

A standalone $142,000 earner in New Jersey would face a blended effective rate around 4%. A $500,000 earner inheriting that same IRA pays more than double on the exact same dollars. The distribution lands on top of an already-stacked tax return, and the entire amount falls into the highest bracket your wages reached.

This is the part most “tax-friendly state” articles miss. The headline rate is one thing. The stacking effect is what actually empties the account.

It also means the lever has the most value for the people earning the most. Cut the household income to $250,000 and the IRA mostly lands in the 6.37% bracket. Still painful, but the gap narrows. At $750,000, it’s worse than the example above. The higher you earn, the more your state of residence is doing to your inheritance.

When residency actually becomes a lever

So the gap is real, and it compounds. Now the harder question: what do you actually do with this?

The answer most articles jump to is *move.* That’s not the answer for most people.

Uprooting your life to save state income tax is rarely the right trade. Family lives where they live. Careers anchor where they anchor. The math has to clear a much higher bar than “I’d save money,” because the cost of the move, social, professional, geographic, is real.

But there’s a smaller version of this decision that gets ignored.

Sometimes a move is already on the table for other reasons:

A job change or relocation
A downsize after the kids leave
A partner’s career move
A shift to remote work that uncouples your job from your zip code
A planned sabbatical or career break

In those moments, the timing of when you cross the state line, relative to when you take inherited IRA distributions, becomes one of the highest-impact decisions in your financial life.

The federal rule that makes this work was passed in 1996. Federal law prohibits a former state from taxing IRA distributions you take after you’ve established residency elsewhere. Once you’ve established residency in a new state, your former state can’t reach into your inherited IRA. The state where you live when the distribution hits is the only state with claim on it.

A few things to know if you’re sitting with this decision:

Domicile is what matters. Domicile is your permanent legal home, where your real life is centered. States look at where your driver’s license is issued, where you vote, where your kids go to school, where your doctors and accountants are, where you spend the bulk of your nights. States like New York and New Jersey audit these decisions aggressively, and they look at the totality of your life pattern, not any single factor.

Timing is binary. Distributions taken before you change residency are taxed by the old state. Distributions taken after are taxed by the new one. There is no proration. Whatever your residency is on the date the distribution hits, that is the state with claim on it.

The 10-year window gives you a runway. If a move is realistic in years three or four of the 10-year window, deferring distributions into the post-move years can capture the lever without forcing the move itself to happen sooner than it should. This is where last week’s distribution-pacing strategy compounds with residency.

The lever has value even if you never pull it. Knowing what residency is worth is part of understanding your full financial picture. Some readers will move and use this. Most won’t. Both should leave with a clearer view of the costs and trade-offs sitting inside the inheritance.

The point isn’t to chase tax savings around the country. The point is that residency is one of the most underused inputs in financial planning. For high-earning beneficiaries of an inherited IRA, it might be the single biggest dollar lever on the table. Most people never realize it’s there until the account is empty.

That’s it.

Our client called because a family member’s health is failing, and a $1,000,000 inherited IRA is about to land in their lives. They expected the conversation to be about how to invest it. It turned into a conversation about where to live.

That’s the part most people don’t see coming. An inherited IRA isn’t just a number on a statement. It’s a ten-year tax decision wearing the disguise of an inheritance. Federal tax is fixed. Investment returns are uncertain. Residency is the one input you actually control, and for the people earning the most, it moves the most money.

Most readers won’t move. Most shouldn’t. But knowing what residency is worth is its own kind of wealth.

Now you know what’s on the table.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 3,200+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The One Number That Determines When Work Becomes Optional

Fran Walsh — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:03:06 GMT

Every week we sit across from households earning $250,000 or more who feel stretched. Not because they don’t earn enough. Because expenses have quietly grown to match income - and the savings rate was never intentionally set.

It was whatever was left over. Or it was a number that felt right years ago and never got revisited. $5k a year when you’re 23 seems incredible. At 45 its a different story. Meanwhile income grew, lifestyle followed, and the gap between earning and keeping slowly closed.

This is one of the most common - and costly - patterns we see at this income level. And it’s fixable. But only once you see it clearly.

This week, we’re breaking down why savings rate may be the single most important variable in your financial plan - and what the math looks like when two identical households make one different choice.

Let’s dig in

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The Variable Most High Earners Ignore

High earners tend to be optimizers. They negotiate compensation packages, select funds carefully, rebalance portfolios, and stress about tax efficiency. All of that matters.

But savings rate - the percentage of income you actually keep and invest - may be the most direct variable determining when work becomes optional. More than your return rate. More than your fund selection. More than almost anything else you spend time on.

And yet for most households we work with, it was never intentionally decided. It was a default.

Two Households. Same Everything. One Different Choice.

Here’s a comparison we walk clients through regularly.

Two households. Both earning $250,000. Both starting at age 35. Both investing at an assumed 8% annual return.

Household A saves 10% - $25,000 per year invested. Household B saves 30% - $75,000 per year invested.

Here’s where each household lands:

Age 45:

Household A: ~$391,000
Household B: ~$1,173,000

Age 55:

Household A: ~$1,236,000
Household B: ~$3,707,000

Age 65:

Household A: ~$3,059,000
Household B: ~$9,176,000

Gap at 65: $6,117,000.

Same income. Same returns. Same starting age. One different number.

The Part Most People Miss: It Lowers the Finish Line Too

Here’s where the math gets genuinely interesting - and where most conversations about savings rate stop short.

A higher savings rate doesn’t just build the portfolio faster. It also lowers the amount you need to retire. Because if you’re living on less, you need less to sustain that life indefinitely.

Using a common framework many financial planners reference as a starting point - 25x annual expenses, based on the 4% guideline - the two households don’t just have different portfolios. They have different finish lines.

Household A is spending roughly $225,000 per year. To sustain that, they may need approximately $5,625,000.

Household B is spending roughly $175,000 per year. To sustain that, they may need approximately $4,375,000.

The higher savings rate is working on both ends simultaneously - building the portfolio faster while reducing the target at the same time. That dual effect is where the real gap comes from.

Running each household to their number: Household A may reach financial independence around age 73. Household B may reach it around age 57.

Sixteen years. Identical incomes. Identical markets.

A few important caveats: this simplified model doesn’t account for Social Security, pension income, taxes, inflation, or investment fees - all of which would affect the actual outcome. Investment returns are not guaranteed. But the directional point holds: savings rate is doing far more work than most people realize.

What the Portfolio Actually Buys You Before Retirement

This isn’t only a retirement story. And that’s the part that tends to land hardest in our conversations.

At age 50, Household B has approximately $2,200,000 invested. Household A has approximately $733,000.

That difference isn’t just a number on a statement. It’s what determines your options - long before you ever think about retiring.

Here’s what $2.2M at 50 may make possible:

That’s not a retirement metric. That’s an optionality metric. And it shows up - or doesn’t - well before age 65.

How a $250K Household Ends Up Saving 10% (Or Less)

It doesn’t happen because of bad decisions. It happens because of a pattern that’s almost invisible while it’s occurring.

Income grows. Lifestyle follows. A bigger house. Nicer cars. Private school. More travel. A second home or a renovation that made sense at the time. Each upgrade feels earned - because it is. At $250,000 a year, these things are genuinely within reach.

But each one raises the monthly floor. Each one raises the FI target. And each one pushes the finish line a little further out.

The savings rate quietly erodes - not through recklessness, but through a long series of completely reasonable choices that nobody added up.

This is lifestyle creep. And it’s one of the most costly financial patterns that exists at high income levels, precisely because it never looks like a mistake in the moment.

How to Think About Your Own Savings Rate

The households building real optionality at this income aren’t always earning more. They’re keeping more - intentionally, before lifestyle has a chance to absorb it.

A few questions worth sitting with:

What is your actual savings rate today - not what it was when you set it up, but what it is right now? Do you know the number?

Has your lifestyle grown proportionally with your income? If income has gone up 40% in five years and savings has grown by 10%, the gap is widening even if the dollar amount saved looks larger.

Do you know what your FI number is? Without a target, savings rate becomes arbitrary. With one, it becomes a dial you can actually turn.

There’s no universal right answer for what the savings rate should be. What matters is that it’s intentional - set in advance, not whatever’s left over after everything else.

Bottom Line

Savings rate may be the single most important variable in projecting the long-term success of a financial plan. Not because the other variables don’t matter. Because this one does two things at once.

Household A (10% savings): may reach financial independence around age 73, needs ~$5.6M, has ~$3.1M at 65
Household B (30% savings): may reach financial independence around age 57, needs ~$4.4M, has ~$9.2M at 65
The 16-year gap comes from one variable - savings rate - working on both the portfolio and the finish line simultaneously
At age 50, the difference between the two households isn’t just $1.5M - it’s the difference between options and obligation
Lifestyle creep is the mechanism. Intentional savings rate is the defense.

The goal isn’t to deprive yourself. It’s to make the choice consciously - before lifestyle makes it for you.

Because $250,000 a year is a remarkable income. Spending most of it isn’t a failure. But it may quietly delay financial freedom by 16 years.

Dial in the savings rate. Everything else is noise.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The 10-Year Rule That Quietly Hands A Third Of Your Inheritance To The IRS

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 05 May 2026 11:03:40 GMT

Two weeks ago I wrote about my grandparents and what good estate planning actually does. If you missed it, here’s that piece: Estate Planning Isn’t About Your Death. The short version: they did the work, and the family got to grieve instead of untangle.

This is what comes next.

When the planning is done right, the inheritance lands clean. Beneficiaries named. Accounts titled. Documents signed. Nothing to fight over.

But for an inherited IRA, that’s where the easy part ends. The IRS gives you ten years to empty the account. For a high earner already stacking W-2, bonus, and equity comp, those withdrawals land on top of everything you already make. Handled lazily, the tax drag runs into six figures. A third of the inheritance, gone to avoidable mistakes.

Handled well, you keep most of it.

Six decisions separate the two outcomes—here they are.

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The 10-year rule is the constraint

If you’re an adult child, sibling, or named non-spouse beneficiary, the rule is the same. The account has to be empty by December 31st of Year 10. That’s the box you’re working inside.

It applies to both Traditional and Roth IRAs, but the strategies inside the box are completely different—and confusing the two is the most expensive mistake in this entire piece.

One more wrinkle: if the original owner had already started taking required distributions before they died, you also have to take annual distributions during the 10-year window. Not just a final cleanup at year ten.

Confirm both of these before you do anything else. The custodian won’t tell you. Your CPA might miss it. The IRS won’t.

Traditional and Roth demand opposite strategies

A Traditional IRA inherited by a high earner is a tax problem.

Every dollar you withdraw stacks on top of your W-2, your bonus, your RSU vesting. If you’re already in the 32% or 35% bracket, those distributions push you into 37%. They can trigger the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax surtax on your other investment income.

The play is tax-bracket engineering. You spread distributions across ten years to keep yourself out of the top brackets. You time withdrawals around equity vesting, sabbaticals, job changes, low-income years. You treat the 10-year window as a planning horizon, not a deadline.

Lump sum is almost never right.

A Roth IRA is the opposite problem, which is to say barely a problem. Distributions come out tax-free. There’s no urgency to touch it. The default move for a high earner is to let it compound tax-free for the full ten years, then take it all in Year 10. You only break that rule if you genuinely need the liquidity earlier. Otherwise, leave it alone.

Pacing and residency are where the real money is

Two levers do most of the work over a 10-year window.

The first is withdrawal pacing. There’s no default answer here. Your strategy depends on what your income looks like over the next decade. Even distributions smooth your tax exposure. Front-loading makes sense if your income is dropping (a sabbatical, a career pivot, a slower-earning spouse). Back-loading makes sense if you’re peaking now and expect lower-earning years ahead.

If you don’t model this, you’re guessing. And guessing on a six-figure inheritance with a 37% bracket on the table is expensive.

The second lever is state residency. Inherited IRA distributions are taxed where you live when you take them. California adds up to 13.3% on top of federal. New York stacks state (10.9%) and city tax. New Jersey tops out at 10.75%. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee charge zero state income tax on the distribution.

If a move is on the table for other reasons—a job change, a downsize, a relocation closer to family—the timing of that move against your withdrawal schedule can save tens of thousands. Sometimes more.

This isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about not paying tax in two states when you only need to pay it in one.

Six decisions, in order

Here’s the full sequence:

Confirm you’re subject to the 10-year rule
Confirm whether annual distributions are required
Map Traditional vs. Roth strategy separately—they’re opposite
Model your 10-year withdrawal pacing against projected income
Factor state residency into the timing of major distributions
Avoid the four execution mistakes that destroy value

The fourth point is where most planning ends and most money is left on the table. The fifth is where most people don’t know there’s a lever to pull.

The sixth is its own category. Miss an annual RMD and the penalty is 25% of what you should have withdrawn. Empty the account a year late and 25% of what’s left.

The mistakes that destroy value

Four common ones. Each one is avoidable.

Taking a lump sum to “simplify.” The single most expensive mistake. A $500K Traditional IRA taken in one year by a high earner can hand 40%+ to federal and state combined. Spread over ten years, that number drops dramatically.

Letting the custodian auto-distribute. Custodians default to whatever’s easiest for them, not what’s optimal for you. Their job is to move money out of the account. Yours is to time it.

Forgetting the inherited IRA titling rules. An inherited IRA must stay titled as an inherited IRA, with the original owner’s name in the title. You can’t roll it into your own. You can’t combine it with your existing accounts. Get the titling wrong and the entire balance becomes taxable in the year of the error.

Assuming your CPA and custodian are coordinating. They’re not. The custodian processes transactions. The CPA files the return. Neither is modeling your 10-year tax picture against your projected income, your equity vesting, or your potential move to a lower-tax state.

That coordination is your job. Or your advisor’s. But it doesn’t happen on its own.

That’s it.

My grandparents did the planning. They protected the family during the worst weeks of our lives, and the inheritance landed clean. Exactly the way they intended.

The execution sits with us now.

That’s the part no estate plan can do for you. The 10-year window doesn’t care that you’re grieving. The IRS doesn’t adjust for it. The custodian won’t model it. Whether the work they did gets honored, or quietly undone by avoidable tax drag, comes down to the decisions made in the years after they’re gone.

This weekend: pull the statement. Confirm the titling. Block an hour to map the next ten years against your income.

That’s where this starts.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 3,200+ readers.
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Two Siblings. Same Inheritance. A $277,000 Difference in Taxes.

Fran Walsh — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:01:38 GMT

A few months ago, I sat across from someone who had just inherited a $500,000 IRA from her father. She was relieved - grateful, even. It felt like a gift, a cushion, a head start she didn’t expect.

By the time we mapped out what her tax bill could look like if she handled it the way most people do, the room got very quiet.

She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was doing exactly what most people do - planning to let it grow for as long as possible and take it out when she needed it. The problem is that the rules changed in 2020, and nobody told her. The same goes for most of the people who inherit retirement accounts every year.

This week, we’re breaking down one of the most misunderstood tax situations we see - the inherited IRA - and what a thoughtful distribution strategy can mean for how much of that inheritance you actually keep.

Let’s dig in

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What the SECURE Act Changed

Before 2020, inherited IRAs were genuinely powerful. Most non-spouse beneficiaries could “stretch” distributions across their lifetime - decades of continued tax-deferred growth, small annual withdrawals, minimal tax impact. It was one of the most effective wealth transfer tools available.

The SECURE Act largely ended that. For most non-spouse beneficiaries today, the account must be fully emptied within 10 years of the original owner’s death. That single change transformed an inherited IRA from a multigenerational planning tool into a 10-year tax management problem.

The clock is ticking whether you know about it or not.

Who the 10-Year Rule Does - and Doesn’t - Apply To

Before going further, it’s worth noting the exceptions, because they matter. The 10-year rule generally does not apply to surviving spouses, who have more flexible options including treating the IRA as their own. It also generally doesn’t apply to minor children of the account owner - though once they reach age 21, the 10-year clock typically begins. Beneficiaries who are disabled or chronically ill, and those within 10 years of age of the deceased, may also qualify for different treatment.

If you fall into one of those categories, your planning options look meaningfully different. For everyone else, the 10-year rule applies - and what you do within that window has significant consequences.

The Tax Bomb Most People Don’t See Coming

Here’s the pattern we see constantly: a beneficiary inherits an IRA, lets it sit and grow for nine years, then withdraws the entire balance in year 10. On the surface it sounds smart - maximize the tax-deferred growth, delay the tax hit as long as possible.

The math often tells a different story.

Inherit a $500,000 IRA at age 40. At 7% annual growth, that account may be worth close to $983,000 by year 10. Withdraw $983,000 in a single year - stacked on top of your regular income - and the federal tax liability alone could reach $250,000 to $310,000 or more, depending on your situation. That’s potentially 25-30% of the entire inherited account gone in one year.

Not because you made a bad decision. Because nobody told you there was a better approach.

There’s also an important nuance that most people miss entirely. If the original account owner had already passed their Required Beginning Date - meaning they were already taking required minimum distributions - you are generally required to take annual distributions in years 1 through 9 and empty the account by year 10. If they hadn’t yet started RMDs, the rules are more flexible, and you only need to empty the account by the end of year 10. Understanding which situation you’re in shapes everything about how you plan.

Why Spreading Distributions May Change the Outcome

One approach that many financial planners use as a starting point: rather than concentrating the tax hit in year 10, consider spreading withdrawals across all 10 years.

Instead of pulling $983,000 in a single year, taking roughly $65,000 to $80,000 annually may mean each distribution lands in a lower tax bracket, your total tax liability is spread across a decade, and the overall amount you pay to the IRS could be significantly lower. This isn’t a guarantee - your specific tax situation, income, and bracket each year will determine the actual outcome - but for many beneficiaries, the difference is substantial.

This is where your current income trajectory matters as much as the account itself. Many people inherit in their 40s or 50s, during peak earning years. Adding $65,000 to $80,000 of distributions on top of a high salary can push every dollar of that distribution into the 32% or 35% bracket. A thoughtful approach accounts for where your income is headed, not just where it is today.

If you expect to retire in year 6, for example, your final four years inside the 10-year window may be your best opportunity for larger distributions. Income may drop. Tax brackets may open up. The 10-year window isn’t just a distribution deadline - it’s a tax planning window, if you treat it that way.

The Roth Inherited IRA - Where the Strategy Flips

If you inherit a Roth IRA, the 10-year rule generally still applies. But the approach many financial planners recommend is the near-opposite of a traditional inherited IRA.

Because Roth distributions are generally tax-free to the beneficiary (qualifying conditions apply), there’s typically little reason to take distributions early. The common approach is to let the account compound for the full 10 years and take the entire balance in year 10 - tax-free. Every year you leave it invested is another year of tax-free growth you’d be giving up by withdrawing early.

Same 10-year rule. Completely different strategy. This distinction alone is worth knowing if you’ve inherited - or expect to inherit - a Roth account.

What We See Most Often

In working with clients through inherited IRA situations, a few patterns come up repeatedly. Beneficiaries who do nothing for years and face a large unexpected tax bill in year 10. Beneficiaries who don’t account for their own income when timing distributions. Beneficiaries who don’t realize they’ve inherited a Roth and treat it the same as a traditional IRA. And beneficiaries who don’t bring a tax advisor or financial planner into the conversation until year 9, when the options have narrowed considerably.

The window for planning is the full 10 years. The earlier you map out a strategy, the more flexibility you have.

Bottom Line

An inherited IRA is a meaningful gift. But without a distribution strategy, a significant portion of it may go to the IRS instead of your family.

The SECURE Act requires most non-spouse beneficiaries to empty inherited IRAs within 10 years
If the deceased had started RMDs, annual distributions in years 1-9 are generally required - not just a year-10 withdrawal
A lump-sum withdrawal in year 10 can result in a tax bill of $250,000 or more on a $500,000 inheritance
Spreading distributions across the 10-year window may significantly reduce total taxes paid - the right approach depends on your income, bracket, and retirement timeline
Inherited Roth IRAs generally work in reverse - let it grow and take the balance tax-free in year 10

The 10-year window isn’t a deadline to ignore. It’s one of the more specific and time-sensitive tax planning opportunities that exists - one that opens once and doesn’t reopen. If you’ve inherited an IRA or expect to, this is worth a conversation with a financial planner and a CPA sooner rather than later.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

Estate Planning Isn't About Your Death

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:01:40 GMT

In September I watched my grandmother bury her husband of 65 years.

Three months later, we buried her.

The doctors called it lung cancer. The family knew better. Sixty-five years is a long time to love someone. Long enough that losing him made her a different person in the months before we lost her too.

What I didn’t expect, in the middle of all that grief, was how much quiet relief there was underneath it.

Not relief that they were gone. Relief that they’d done the work.

Every account had a beneficiary. Every document was signed. Every wish was written down. We got to focus on remembering them instead of untangling their lives.

That’s what estate planning actually is. Not a morbid task about your death. A gift you leave behind for the people who have to keep living without you.

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What it looks like when there’s no plan

I’ve watched it from the other side too.

Families sitting in a lawyer’s office six months after the funeral, trying to figure out who the 401(k) beneficiary was. A spouse locked out of a checking account for weeks because it was only in her husband’s name. Siblings arguing over what their mother would have wanted, because she never wrote it down.

The grief doesn’t pause while you handle all of it. It just stacks on top.

Someone has to call the bank. Someone has to find the passwords. Someone has to go to probate court. Someone has to make medical decisions in an ICU hallway at 2 a.m. with no legal authority to do it.

And the worst part: most of the fighting that happens in those months isn’t about money. It’s about family members trying to honor a person who never made their wishes clear. And disagreeing on what honoring them means.

That’s what a missing plan actually costs.

Weeks of grief hijacked by logistics.

What it looks like when there is a plan

My grandparents did the work long before any of us thought we’d need it.

When the time came, nothing had to be decided in a hurry. The accounts had beneficiaries. The documents were signed. The wishes were on paper. The family got to show up and remember them. That was it.

That’s the gift. Not just organized finances. Time to grieve instead of time to untangle.

Here's what the work actually looks like.

The 7 fundamentals you need—in order of urgency

Each one is a weekend or less.

1. Beneficiary designations

This is who inherits your 401(k), IRA, and life insurance. These override your will completely. If your ex-spouse is still listed on your 401(k) from 2011, your ex-spouse gets the money. Log into each account. Update primary and contingent. This is the single highest-leverage 15 minutes you’ll spend.

2. Transfer on Death (TOD) designations

Your brokerage account passes directly to a named person, skipping probate entirely. Probate is court, fees, delays, and public record. Six months minimum in most states. TOD bypasses all of it. One phone call to your broker, one form.

3. Payable on Death (POD) designations

Same idea, but for checking and savings. Without this, your family might wait weeks for access to the cash they need for the funeral, the mortgage, the basics. Ten minutes at your bank solves it.

4. A will

Your will handles everything that doesn’t have a named beneficiary, TOD, or POD. Without one, your state decides who gets what. And your state doesn’t know your family. Online legal services can handle basic situations quickly and cheaply. More complex estates warrant an attorney. Even that doesn’t have to mean thousands of dollars.

5. Healthcare proxy and power of attorney

These name who makes medical and financial decisions if you can’t. Without them, your family goes to court to get permission to act on your behalf. While you’re in a hospital bed. State-specific forms, notarized, distributed to the people who need them.

6. A digital asset inventory

Passwords, accounts, where the money lives. A password manager plus a shared note with the important locations. Your family shouldn’t have to guess which of the eleven email addresses held the brokerage login.

7. A letter of intent

Not legal. Just a letter. Funeral preferences. Who gets the watch. Values you want remembered. This is the document that prevents most of the family fights, because it names what “honoring them” actually means—in their own words. Write it like a letter. Store it with the will.

A note on what’s not here: Trusts, tax-advantaged gifting, advanced planning. Those may be warranted as your estate grows, and a good advisor and estate attorney can help you decide. But they’re optimizations. These 7 are the foundation. Skip the foundation and the optimizations don’t matter.

Most of these take a weekend afternoon. The few that need professional help don’t have to be complicated or expensive. All of them protect someone you love.

What the work actually does

Every one of these steps looks like paperwork.

None of them are.

Each one is a decision you make now so someone you love doesn’t have to make it during the worst week of their life. That’s the whole point. Not tax efficiency. Not estate optimization. Not some spreadsheet version of responsibility.

Just intentions, made concrete, the world will honor when you can’t speak anymore.

That’s it.

My grandparents weren’t financial planners. They weren’t wealthy. They were just disciplined about one thing: they didn’t want the people they loved to suffer twice.

Once from losing them. And again from the mess left behind.

That’s all estate planning is. A way of saying I loved you enough to handle this before you had to.

You don’t need an attorney this weekend. You just need a login, a form, and an hour.

Pick one. Do it this Saturday. Then tackle the next one.

Seven weekends from now, the people you love will be protected. And they’ll never know the difference—until they do.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 3,200+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The Mental Math Trick That Changes How You See Every Investment

Fran Walsh — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:03:02 GMT

Every single week, we hear from people who are doing the right things - investing consistently, making contributions, building the habit. But they have no idea if they’re doing enough. They can’t picture where they’ll actually land in 5, 10, 15, or 20 years. They’re putting money in and hoping the math works out.

That’s not a motivation problem. It’s a visibility problem.

Most people don’t have a mental model for compounding. They see a rate of return - say, 7% - and assume it means something. But they can’t feel it. They can’t picture it. They can’t use it to make a real decision in the real world.

There’s a tool that fixes this. It’s been around for centuries. Most people have never heard of it. And once you learn it, you’ll never look at an interest rate the same way again.

Let’s dig in

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The Rule of 72

The formula is as simple as finance gets.

Divide 72 by your annual return rate. The result is how many years it takes your money to double.

72 / rate = years to double.

That’s it. No calculator needed. No spreadsheet. Just the number 72 and whatever return you’re working with.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

S&P 500 (~10% historical average): 72 / 10 = 7.2 years to double
High-yield savings account (5%): 72 / 5 = 14.4 years to double
Bond fund (~4%): 72 / 4 = 18 years to double
Checking account (0.5%): 72 / 0.5 = 144 years to double

Same money. Same starting point. Wildly different destinations.

When you see it laid out like that, the checking account number doesn’t feel like a conservative choice. It feels like a choice to never double your money in your lifetime.

How to Reverse It

Here’s where the Rule of 72 gets genuinely useful as a planning tool.

Most people set financial goals the wrong way. They say, “I want to retire with $3 million,” without ever asking what return rate they need to get there. The goal sits in the future like a vague hope. There’s no bridge between where you are and where you want to be.

The Rule of 72 lets you build that bridge.

Want to double your money in 10 years? 72 / 10 = 7.2% annual return needed. Now you have a target, not a wish. You can look at your actual portfolio and ask whether it’s built to deliver 7.2%. You can have a real conversation with an advisor about whether your current allocation gets you there.

Want to double in 6 years? You need 12%. That’s aggressive - it’s possible, but it carries real risk. Knowing that in advance means you’re making an intentional tradeoff, not stumbling into one.

This is the difference between passive financial hope and active financial planning.

The Inflation Flip

The Rule of 72 doesn’t just apply to investment returns. It applies to anything that compounds - including the things working against you.

Take inflation. When inflation runs at 6%, your purchasing power doesn’t just slowly erode. It gets cut in half in 12 years. 72 / 6 = 12.

That means the $100,000 sitting in your savings account today buys roughly $50,000 worth of goods and services in 12 years - in real terms. The account balance didn’t change. But what it can actually do in your life did.

This is why holding large amounts of cash during high-inflation periods is one of the most expensive decisions a high earner can make. It doesn’t feel risky. There’s no volatility, no red numbers on a screen. But the math is working against you every single year in a way most people never stop to calculate.

The Rule of 72 makes the invisible visible. Inflation isn’t an abstraction anymore. It’s a number, with a timeline, and a consequence.

The Cousins Nobody Talks About

The Rule of 72 has two less famous relatives worth knowing.

The Rule of 114 tells you how long it takes to triple your money. The Rule of 144 tells you how long it takes to quadruple it.

At a 10% annual return:

Double: 72 / 10 = 7.2 years
Triple: 114 / 10 = 11.4 years
Quadruple: 144 / 10 = 14.4 years

What this reveals is how compounding accelerates. Your money doesn’t grow in a straight line - it bends. The first doubling takes 7.2 years. The second doubling? Also 7.2 years. But now you’re working with twice as much, so the dollar gains are dramatically larger.

The later years aren’t where you wait for the payoff. They’re where the payoff actually lives.

The Bigger Lesson: Small Differences Are Enormous

This is what the Rule of 72 is really teaching you.

The gap between a 6% return and a 10% return doesn’t sound like much. Four percentage points. Less than half a percentage point per month. But in doubling time, it’s the difference between 12 years and 7.2 years. On a 30-year timeline, that 4% difference doesn’t add a little more wealth. It produces a completely different financial life.

I see this constantly with clients who are obsessively focused on cutting expenses - tracking every subscription, optimizing every grocery run - while sitting in cash or in a savings account earning 4%. They’re trying to win a $200-a-month game while leaving a 7.2-year doubling cycle on the table.

That’s not a dig at frugality. Frugality matters. But it has to be paired with return rate awareness. You cannot save your way to the kind of wealth that creates real freedom. You have to grow your way there. And growing requires understanding that the difference between a 6% return and a 10% return isn’t 4%. It’s time. And time is the one variable you can’t manufacture more of.

How to Apply This Starting Today

Run every account you own through the rule. Your 401(k), your brokerage, your savings account. How long until each one doubles? The results will quickly show you where your money is working and where it’s sitting idle.

Then reverse it for your goals. Pick a target and a timeline, and figure out what return rate you actually need. That number becomes a filter for every investment decision you make - not a vague hope, but a real benchmark.

That said, rate of return isn’t the whole story. Investments exist to support the life you’re building - not the other way around. A 10% return means nothing if the portfolio is keeping you up at night, or if it’s not structured around what you actually need your money to do. The Rule of 72 is a lens for clarity, not a scorecard. The goal is a plan where your investments and your life are pulling in the same direction.

Bottom Line

The Rule of 72 is simple enough to do in your head and powerful enough to change how you see every account you own.

72 / your return rate = years to double your money
72 / your target years = the return rate you need to hit your goal
72 / inflation rate = years until your purchasing power gets cut in half

But the deeper lesson isn’t the formula. It’s what the formula reveals: small differences in return rate, compounded over time, produce outcomes that look nothing alike. The difference between 6% and 10% isn’t incremental. It’s transformational.

Just don’t lose sight of why the math matters. Investments aren’t the goal - they’re the engine. They exist to fund the life you’re designing, and they work best when they’re built around a plan, not chased in isolation. The number you’re trying to double isn’t just a portfolio balance. It’s your freedom, your options, your time.

Start with your own accounts. Run the numbers. Then make sure the strategy behind them is pointed at something that actually matters to you.

Because the goal was never just to have more money. It was to have a life worth building toward.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

10 Money Rules Your Parents Never Needed

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:02:47 GMT

Two new clients sat across from me recently. Both earning $450K+, both doing everything their parents taught them—saving diligently, buying the house, staying loyal to their employer. Following a playbook that worked because they watched it work firsthand.

But they weren’t as far ahead as they expected to be. And they couldn’t figure out why.

Here’s the thing: their parents’ advice wasn’t wrong. It was built for a world with pensions, 30-year careers, and houses that cost three times your salary.

That world doesn’t exist anymore.

The gap between high income and actual wealth isn’t knowledge or effort. It’s running an outdated playbook in a game that changed the rules.

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The new rules

Rule 1: Your savings account is costing you.

Most checking accounts pay 0.01% interest. High-yield savings accounts do better, but nowhere near enough to outpace inflation running at 4–7%.

That $100K sitting idle loses $4,000–$7,000 in purchasing power every year. Silent. Steady. Five years of doing the responsible thing costs you $25,000+.

Your parents kept cash because a savings account in 1985 paid 8%. That relationship no longer exists. Static money isn’t safe. It’s just losing quietly, and the statement never show it.

Rule 2: Buy back your time, not status.

Most people build wealth to buy things that signal they’ve arrived. The car. The house. The vacation that looks good on Instagram.

But $1,000 a month in status spending requires roughly $300,000 invested just to sustain it in retirement. That same $1,000 buying back your time frees 20+ hours every week:

A personal assistant handling your calendar and inbox
Meal delivery eliminating four hours of weekly planning and cooking
A cleaning service returning your Saturday mornings

That’s 1,000 hours a year. Time with your kids. Time on work that matters. Time you can’t manufacture later.

Freedom isn’t what you own. It’s what you don’t have to do anymore.

Rule 3: Nobody budgets their way to wealth.

Cutting your daily coffee saves $1,825 a year. A 10% raise on a $150K salary adds $15,000.

That’s an 8x difference. And that’s before you account for the compounding misery of auditing every small purchase.

None of my clients are going to budget their way to wealth. Neither are yours.

Your parents saved their way forward because wages kept pace with the cost of living. That relationship broke decades ago. The ceiling on saving is 100% of your income, but the ceiling on earning doesn’t exist. Put your energy where the leverage actually is.

Rule 4: Job security is an illusion.

I’ve watched $250K roles disappear overnight after years of loyalty. The company moved on immediately. Most employees weren’t prepared. They’d built their entire financial life around a single income stream they didn’t control.

You don’t need to quit your job tomorrow. But if 100% of your income depends on one decision made by someone else, that’s a concentration risk you’d never accept in your investment portfolio.

Ten percent of your income from sources you own changes your entire psychology. It’s not about the money. It’s about knowing you have options.

Rule 5: The spreadsheet doesn’t capture everything.

Your parents optimized hard for financial returns because they had to. Every dollar had a job. There wasn’t much room for spending on experience over efficiency.

You’re in a different position. Life satisfaction, relationships, experiences: these have returns you can’t quantify in a model but absolutely feel across a lifetime.

The weekend trip with your college friends. The dinner you didn’t calculate before ordering. The sabbatical that cost you six months of income but gave you back your identity.

Emotional returns compound differently than financial ones. Some of the best financial decisions aren’t financial at all.

Rule 6: Your home is not your portfolio.

This one is uncomfortable because homeownership is deeply tied to how your parents defined success. And for them, it worked. They bought when houses cost three times their salary.

The math tells a different story today. A $500K home appreciating at 3% annually generates $15K in paper gains, while that same $500K in a diversified portfolio has historically generated closer to $50K. Add carrying costs, maintenance, and property taxes—and the case gets harder to defend.

Buy it for how you want to live. Full stop. Just don’t confuse lifestyle with investment strategy.

Rule 7: Emergency funds are meant to be spent.

The point of an emergency fund is to prevent a bad situation from becoming a financial catastrophe. Most people understand that in theory but can’t bring themselves to use it in practice.

Letting a real emergency push you into high-interest debt while $50K sits completely idle defeats the entire purpose of having it.

Use it. Then rebuild it. The system works exactly as designed when you do.

The goal isn’t to protect the fund. It’s to protect your financial life. Room for error is what separates people who survive hard moments from people who get through them without permanent damage.

Rule 8: Behavior beats strategy.

Start with $100,000 invested. At the S&P 500’s historical average of 10.7% annually, you’d have ~$2,100,000 after 30 years. The average investor, earning 6.8% over the same period due to panic selling and mistimed moves, ends up with ~$720,000.

Same starting point. Same market. A ~$1,390,000 gap driven entirely by behavior — not bad funds, not wrong allocations. Just panic and poor timing. (DALBAR’s annual QAIB study has tracked this behavior gap every year since 1994.)

Your parents held through volatility partly because many of them had pensions and didn’t need to watch the market daily. That distance protected them from themselves. The best portfolio is the one you won’t abandon when it gets uncomfortable.

Rule 9: Think in half-decades.

In March 2020, markets dropped over 30% in weeks. Panic sellers locked in real losses. People who held, or bought more, watched the market recover 179% from those lows to yesterday.

The decision that looked catastrophic in March looks obvious now. Most people remember the fear. They forget the recovery.

Your parents didn’t check their 401(k) balance daily because they couldn’t. That constraint protected them from themselves.

The market transfers wealth from the impatient to the patient. Extend your time horizon. Watch how quickly the noise stops mattering. The same decision that looks terrible in Year 1 tends to brilliant in Year 5.

Rule 10: Money is a tool, not a scoreboard.

This is the one most high earners get backwards.

I’ve watched people accumulate five times their freedom number while passing on experiences they’ll never get back. The trip they’ll take when things slow down. The version of their life they’ll start living once they hit the number.

It never arrives.

Calculate your freedom number: the amount invested that makes work optional for you. Build toward it intentionally. And when you hit it, spend beyond it without guilt.

Your parents worked hard so you’d have options. Use them.

That’s it.

Two clients, $450K+ each, doing everything their parents taught them.

The problem was never them. It was the playbook they inherited from people who loved them and wanted them to succeed in a world that no longer exists.

Your parents’ rules worked because the game rewarded those rules. Stable careers. Affordable houses. Pensions that showed up whether the market did or not.

That game changed. The rules didn’t.

You don’t need to throw out everything they taught you. Update the playbook. Build for the economy you’re actually living in.

Pick one rule and apply it this week. Then pick another.

The compound effect isn’t just financial—it’s the accumulation of better decisions, made consistently, in the right direction.

Your parents built what they built by following the rules of their world.

Now it’s your turn.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

Your Company Withholds 22% on RSUs. You Might Owe 35%

Fran Walsh — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 11:03:41 GMT

A friend called me last spring, genuinely confused. He’d had a strong year - good salary, solid bonus, and a significant RSU vest. He felt like he’d done everything right.

Then he got his tax bill.

He owed $8,000 he hadn’t planned for. Not because he spent recklessly. Not because he ignored his finances. Because his company withheld 22% on his vesting shares, and nobody told him that wasn’t enough.

He’s not an outlier. We see this every April.

Let’s dig in ↓

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What RSUs Actually Are

RSU stands for Restricted Stock Unit. Your company grants you shares as part of your compensation. You don’t own them yet - they vest over time, typically on a 3 or 4-year schedule.

The most common structure is 4-year graded vesting: 25% of your grant vests each year, creating four predictable tax events. Some companies use a 3-year cliff - nothing for three years, then 100% at once. That single vest can be a massive tax event if you’re not prepared for it. Performance-based RSUs tie vesting to company or individual metrics, which makes the timing harder to predict.

The key thing to understand: the moment your shares vest, the IRS treats the full value as ordinary income. It gets added to your W-2 just like salary. Federal, state, and FICA taxes are all due. And whatever gain or loss you experience after the vest date is a separate capital gains event.

The Withholding Trap

Here’s where it goes wrong for most people.

When RSUs vest, your employer withholds taxes on them - but at a flat 22% supplemental income rate. For someone in the 32% or 35% bracket, that gap is significant.

Here’s what it looks like in practice: a $100,000 vest with 22% withheld means $22,000 goes to taxes at the time of vesting. But if your marginal rate is 35%, you actually owe $35,000. That’s a $13,000 shortfall - due April 15.

The problem compounds when RSUs are layered on top of a high base salary. Your salary may already push you into the 32% or 35% bracket before a single share vests. Every dollar of RSU income on top of that is taxed at your marginal rate - not at 22%.

Most people don’t do this math until they’re sitting across from their CPA in March.

The gap can be addressed proactively, but it requires action before the vest happens. Common approaches include increasing W-4 withholding from your salary to cover the difference, making quarterly estimated payments using Form 1040-ES, or using a “sell to cover” election at vest - where enough shares are automatically sold to cover the true tax liability. None of these happen automatically. You have to set them up - ideally with your CPA before your next vest date.

Concentration Risk

The withholding trap is the most immediate problem. Concentration risk is the one that quietly builds over years and then hits all at once.

After 3 or 4 years of vesting at a growing company, it’s common for RSU holders to find that 20-40% of their net worth sits in a single stock. Their employer’s stock. The same company that also pays their salary.

Think about what that means in a bad year. The stock drops, your equity takes a significant hit, and - if the company is struggling - your job security may also be at risk. All three can happen simultaneously.

We saw exactly this in 2022. Meta, Snap, and Netflix all dropped 60-70% in a single year. Employees who had held their vested RSUs without diversifying didn’t just lose paper gains - they lost years of accumulated wealth. The people who had been systematically selling and diversifying at each vest were down with the broader market. Not down 60%.

Same grants. Very different outcomes. The only difference was having a plan and executing it.

The approach many financial planners use as a starting point is to sell at vest and diversify. The stock held in your employer is a concentrated bet on a single company - one you already have significant non-financial exposure to through your career. A useful gut check: if you wouldn’t buy that stock with cash today as an outside investor, it’s worth questioning whether holding the RSUs makes sense.

The exception: if you have genuine conviction in the company - not “I work there” conviction, but the kind where you’ve actually analyzed it like an outside investment - and the position stays under 5-10% of your total net worth, holding selectively can make sense. But that threshold matters. Beyond 10%, concentration risk starts to outweigh potential upside for most people.

The LTCG Timing Strategy

This is the piece most RSU holders miss entirely, and it’s where real tax optimization lives.

When your shares vest, their value at that moment becomes your cost basis. That income is already taxed as ordinary income - there’s no avoiding that. But what happens after vest is a different story.

If you hold your vested shares for more than 12 months before selling, any additional gain above your cost basis is taxed at long-term capital gains rates - 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your income - rather than at your ordinary income rate of up to 37%. For a high earner, that gap is meaningful.

The decision framework is straightforward. Hold beyond 12 months if you have genuine conviction in the stock, the position stays under 10-15% of your net worth, and you can tolerate the volatility of holding a single stock for a year. Don’t hold if you’re already concentrated, if you need the liquidity, or if your conviction is based primarily on the fact that you work there.

The key insight: this is a separate decision from whether to sell at vest. Selling at vest to diversify and holding a small portion for LTCG treatment aren’t mutually exclusive strategies.

The RSU Optimization Checklist

Before your next vest, work through these:

Map your full vesting schedule and identify every upcoming tax event
Calculate your true marginal rate - not the 22% your employer uses
Fix your withholding or set up quarterly estimated payments to cover the gap
Decide your default position on selling vs. holding before the shares vest, not after
If holding beyond vest, track the 12-month clock carefully for LTCG treatment
Keep your employer stock position under 10-15% of total net worth

The Bottom Line

RSUs feel like found money. They’re not. Each vest is a tax event, a concentration decision, and a planning opportunity - all at once.

Your employer withholds 22%. If you’re in the 35% bracket, that gap on a $100,000 vest is $13,000 due in April.
After a few years of vesting, concentration risk becomes the bigger threat - one bad year hits your equity and your income at the same time.
The default is to sell at vest and diversify. Hold selectively only with real conviction and under 10-15% of net worth.
Hold 12+ months after vest for potential LTCG treatment on any additional gain.
None of the fixes are automatic. You have to plan for them before the vest happens.

The people who build real wealth from RSUs treat each vest as a financial event that requires a decision - not a bonus to celebrate and figure out later.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

Trump Accounts: What Parents with Kids Born Before 2025 Need to Know

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 11:02:11 GMT

Last week a client sent me a quick message: “My son is 4. Did we miss Trump Accounts entirely?”

He’d seen the headlines. $1,000 per newborn. Born after January 1, 2025 only. His son didn’t qualify for the seed.

He assumed that was the whole story.

It wasn’t. I walked him through what his 4-year-old actually had access to. Twenty minutes later, they were ready to open an account this summer.

Here’s what I told him.

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What You Got Right

The $1,000 government seed is real. Deposited at birth for children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. If your child was born before 2025, they don’t qualify.

You’re right about that.

But that’s where most of the coverage stopped. And that’s where most parents stopped too.

The seed is one piece of an account that’s still fully available to your child. The rest of the story—how it works, who qualifies, what the math actually looks like—didn’t make the headlines.

Here’s what I walked my client through:

How the account works
What his 4-year-old actually qualifies for
Who can fund the account and how much
How to open one today
What the compounding math looks like starting at age 4

How the Account Works

Trump Accounts were created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025. The account structure lives in IRC §530A. Contributions open July 4, 2026.

Here’s the tax picture most people don’t have.

Contributions go in with after-tax dollars. Growth is tax-deferred. Here’s what that means at withdrawal:

Contributions (your basis): returned tax-free
Growth: taxed as ordinary income—not capital gains rates, not tax-free like a Roth
Penalty exceptions (education, first home): waive the 10% early withdrawal penalty only—the income tax on growth still applies

The honest take: it’s not as clean as a Roth IRA or a 529. But the reason this account is worth paying attention to comes down to one row in the table below.

Trump Accounts aren’t a replacement for a Roth IRA, a 529, or a taxable brokerage. The investment menu is narrow. The tax treatment isn’t as clean.

But for a child with no earned income and a family who wants to start building early, they’re a meaningful complement—especially once you factor in a planning move available at 18.

What Your Child Actually Qualifies For

Michael and Susan Dell are contributing $250 to children age 10 and under, born before 2025, in ZIP codes where the median household income is under $150,000.

Not government money. Doesn’t count toward contribution limits. And it’s mutually exclusive with the $1,000 seed—your child can only receive one or the other.

Kids 11 and older may still qualify if funds remain after initial sign-ups. Any child under 18 can open an account.

Who Can Contribute

No earned income required. That’s the detail most people miss.

A Roth IRA requires the child to have their own income. Trump Accounts don’t. Anyone can contribute—parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, employers, charities.

The annual limit is $5,000 per child, total across all contributors. Employer contributions through cafeteria plans count toward that cap, up to $2,500. The Dell $250 sits outside it entirely—your family can still contribute the full $5,000 in the same year.

How to Open One

File IRS Form 4547 at TrumpAccounts.gov right now. Or include it with your 2025 tax return by April 15—most tax software will have the form.

Accounts go live July 4, 2026. No withdrawals until the child turns 18.

The Math Nobody Is Running

Every projection you’ve seen has been built around a newborn. Here’s what the numbers look like for the kids already in your house:

Starting at 4 isn’t the same as starting at birth. Still a lot better than starting at 16.

One More Move Worth Knowing

As early as 18, account holders can execute a Roth conversion—and it doesn’t require earned income. That path? It doesn’t exist anywhere else.

I covered the full mechanics and the math in this thread: Trump to Roth Conversion Strategy.

That’s it.

My client’s son isn’t getting the $1,000 seed.

But he’s getting an account opened this summer, a $250 Dell contribution, and a family maxing $5,000 a year starting at age 4.

That’s not missing out. That’s a head start.

The parents who sort this out in 2026 — while most are still checked out after the seed headline — are the ones making the decision with full information. Not the ones letting the confusion make it for them.

That window is open right now.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The 10-Year Window Nobody Talks About

Fran Walsh — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:02:18 GMT

I sat down with a friend last week - late 20s, good job, smart person - and asked why they still hadn’t started investing.

The answer? They weren’t ready to be a “full grown adult” yet. Still enjoying life. Plenty of time for all that later.

I didn’t lecture them. I just pulled up a simple example - two people, two starting ages, one number at the end. I showed them the math between starting at 22 versus waiting until 32.

They stared at it for a second and said: “Why has nobody ever shown me this before?”

That’s the question I keep coming back to.

Let’s dig in ↓

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The Numbers

Take two people. Same index fund. Same average annual return. Neither touches the money until age 62. The only difference is when they started.

Person A starts at 22. Invests $5,000 per year for 10 years. Stops completely at 32. Total invested: $50,000.

Person B starts at 32. Invests $5,000 per year for 30 straight years. Never misses a contribution. Total invested: $150,000.

Person B invested three times more money.

Person A still wins. It isn’t close.

At 10% average returns, Person A finishes with $1,390,492. Person B finishes with $822,470 - a gap of roughly $568,000 in favor of the person who stopped investing decades earlier and put in $100,000 less. At a conservative 7%, the outcome is closer, yet the same: Person A has $525,871, Person B has $472,303.

Why This Happens

Person A’s money had a 10-year head start. Those early dollars compounded for 40 years. By the time Person B made their first contribution, Person A had already built a structural advantage that 30 years of disciplined catch-up couldn’t overcome.

A dollar invested at 22 has 40 years to compound. A dollar invested at 32 has 30. That 10-year gap in the exponent - not the contribution amount - decides the outcome.

And to fully close that gap? Person B would need to contribute approximately $8,500 per year instead of $5,000. That’s 70% more, every single year, for 30 years - just to tie.

You cannot buy back time. You can only pay a steep premium to approximate it.

What If You’re Already “Behind”?

Here’s where I want to be direct with anyone reading this who is 35, 38, or 42 and feeling the weight of those numbers.

You are not stuck being Person B.

If you’re 38 and starting today, your money has 24 years to compound before 62. That’s still a long runway. What changes is the required contribution - which is why income growth matters. Not to inflate your lifestyle, but to fund the catch-up investing that earlier-you didn’t do.

A few ways to get started today:

Open a Roth IRA/Brokerage - takes about 10 minutes
Enroll in your employer’s 401(k) and contribute at least enough to get the match
Set up an automatic monthly contribution - even $200/month is a start
If your employer doesn’t offer a 401(k), a traditional IRA works the same way

The Most Valuable Thing You Can Do With This Math

The most powerful use of this illustration isn’t for yourself. It’s for someone young in your life - a kid, a younger sibling, a new grad - who still has those early years in front of them.

Most 22-year-olds have never seen this math. When you show them Person A and Person B side by side, something clicks that no amount of generic financial advice ever achieves.

The window Person A used is still open for a lot of people reading this. And for the people in your life who are just starting out - it’s wide open. That’s worth a conversation.

The Bottom Line

Person A invested $50,000 over 10 early years and accumulated $1,390,492 by 62.
Person B invested $150,000 over 30 later years and accumulated $822,470.
The 10-year head start was worth roughly $568,000 more - despite $100,000 less contributed and 30 fewer years of discipline.
Every year of delay requires materially higher future contributions just to produce the same outcome.
Starting imperfectly today beats starting perfectly later - every single time.

The market doesn’t care when it’s convenient. Compounding doesn’t wait for your raise. The only variable you can actually control is when you start.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

Opulus, LLC (“Opulus”) is a registered investment advisor in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions where exempted. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training.
The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments, nor does it endorse any specific company, security, or investment strategy. Readers should not rely on this content as the sole basis for any investment or financial decisions.
Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. There is no guarantee that any investment strategies discussed will result in profits or avoid losses.
All information is provided “as-is” without any warranties, express or implied. Opulus does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Opinions expressed are those of the authors, Ryan Greiser and Francis Walsh, and are subject to change without notice.
Opulus is not responsible for any errors or omissions, nor for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages resulting from the use or reliance on this information. Use of the content is at your own risk. This content is not intended as an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal.

How to Find the Cheapest Summer Flights in 15 Minutes

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:02:37 GMT

Last month, my wife and I almost paid $774 to fly to Nashville for our 10-year anniversary.

We used AMEX Travel and found their best price. I’d been booking through them for years and never questioned it.

Then I spent five minutes on Google Explore—using it the right way—and booked flight for the same trip for $254. Same seats. Same travel window. $520 less.

That money upgraded our hotel room.

The difference wasn’t luck or credit card hacks. It was one specific method most people never find.

Here’s how it works.

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1. Start Here. Leave This Blank.

Go to Google Travel and open the Explore feature.

Most people type in a destination. That’s the mistake.

When you enter a city, you’re asking Google “how much does it cost to go here?”—and Google gives you an honest but incomplete answer. You see one destination’s prices. You miss every cheaper option that existed two clicks away.

Leave the destination field blank. Enter only your departure city.

Now Google shows you every possible destination, ranked by price. Instead of pricing one trip, you’re seeing the entire opportunity map.

2. Flexibility First, Filters Second

The next move is date flexibility. Select “1-week trip in next 6 months” or choose your target month. June, July, whatever works for your family.

Here’s why this matters more than most people realize: rigid dates are the second-most-expensive habit in travel. When you add this filter, Google stops showing you the cheapest flights and starts showing you the cheapest weeks to fly. That shift alone can save hundreds.

Once you have your window, add filters one at a time:

Popular destinations
Direct flights only
Specific airlines
Bags included

Start with no filters. Add one, watch the price move, and decide if it’s worth it. A direct flight adding $80? Now that’s a deliberate choice instead of an invisible assumption.

This is how you master the method—not just the tool.

3. Switch to the Map View

This is where the deals become visible.

Switch to map view. Instead of a list of prices, you get a visual of destinations with price bubbles—and you can see, at a glance, where your money goes furthest.

Our Nashville trip was this moment. Newark departure. May 3–12. Two travelers. Direct flights both ways. The map showed $254 total.

AMEX Travel’s best price for those same seats?

$774.

Three times the cost. Not because the flights were different, but because fixed dates on a rigid platform hide the windows where prices drop. The map view doesn’t just show you a price. It shows you optionality.

And optionality is where the savings live.

4. Get On This Now

Summer prices spike in April and May as demand builds. We’re still inside the booking window where the deals sit—but it closes fast.

This isn’t urgency for the sake of it. It’s math.

The closer you get to summer, the less leverage you have. Use this method while the price curve is still in your favor. It takes 15 minutes. The tool is free.

And don’t think of this as cutting corners on a vacation. The $520 I saved on flights didn’t disappear—it paid for a better hotel room. Same trip, better experience, because I searched differently.

That’s the version of money management worth building. Not spending less on the things that matter. Spending smarter to get more out of them.

The System at a Glance

Go to Google Travel → Explore
Leave the destination blank—enter departure city only
Add “1-week trip in next 6 months” or select your target month
Start with zero filters, then add one at a time
Switch to map view to see where the deals are

That’s it.

Ten years from now, I won’t remember what I paid for those Nashville flights.

But I’ll remember the room upgrade. The extra dinner we didn’t have to think twice about. The anniversary that felt exactly like what it was supposed to feel like.

The $520 made more of that possible. Not because I’m disciplined. Because I used a free tool the right way for five minutes.

That’s what strategic spending actually looks like. Not cutting what matters. Just staying intentional about the moves that add up.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

Join The Opulus Method Newsletter — Every Tuesday, I share strategies that help high-income millennials build wealth without sacrificing their life. Join 2,500+ readers.
Work With Us 1-on-1 — We’ll build your personalized strategy to cut your taxes, maximize your income, and grow your wealth month after month. You focus on living your life. We handle the financial strategy and execution.

The Over-Saving Trap

Fran Walsh — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 13:02:17 GMT

One of my clients was saving 44% of a $340,000 income. Hadn’t taken a real vacation in three years. Still felt guilty every time he spent money on anything beyond necessities.

On paper, he was doing everything right.

In reality, he’d optimized himself into a kind of financial paralysis - working hard, accumulating wealth, and quietly deferring the life he was building it for.

He’s not alone. Most financial advice warns against spending too much, and for good reason. But very little warns against delaying life indefinitely.

Both can be mistakes.

Let’s dig in ↓

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Over-saving looks incredibly responsible: maxing every retirement account, maintaining a 40%+ savings rate, saying no constantly, always choosing future security over present enjoyment.

For many people, this discipline is exactly what they need. Most Americans undersave dramatically.

But I work primarily with high-income professionals who’ve already internalized the saving message. For this group, I often see a different problem: people who’ve become so good at deferring gratification that they’ve forgotten how to use the wealth they’re building.

The hidden cost is deferred living. And unlike money, some things don’t compound when you wait - they expire.

What Doesn’t Compound: Time, Health, and Energy

Your investment portfolio compounds beautifully when you delay withdrawals. That $10,000 you don’t spend at 30 could become $75,000 by 60.

But not everything works this way.

Time with your kids doesn’t compound. Your daughter who is seven right now will be eight next year. You can’t save up time and experience it later with interest. This year expires December 31st, never to return.
Physical capability doesn’t compound. The hiking trip you’ve been putting off is more enjoyable - and more feasible - at 35 than at 65. Your knees and energy aren’t improving with age.
Relationships don’t compound through neglect. Skipping every wedding and reunion to preserve your savings rate doesn’t strengthen bonds - it weakens them.

Some experiences have expiration dates. Waiting until you’re “financially independent” might mean waiting until they’re no longer possible.

The Burnout Factor

Here’s the risk nobody puts in a spreadsheet: when every dollar is relentlessly optimized, resentment builds.

You say no to everything - the weekend trip, the nicer car that would make your commute bearable, the home upgrade that would improve daily life, the hobby equipment you’d actually use.

Eventually, the system breaks.

Consider what happens to someone earning $200,000 who burns out and steps into a $120,000 role. They’ve lost far more in lifetime earnings than they would have spent on the vacation or lifestyle upgrades that might have prevented it. The math on “just save more” quietly falls apart.

And on a smaller scale: the person who denies themselves everything for years often makes large, poorly-thought-out purchases driven by accumulated resentment - undermining everything they’ve carefully built.

Sustainable financial plans require release valves. Intentional spending on things that matter prevents the explosion of unintentional spending driven by deprivation.

When Spending Creates More Value Than Investing

There are specific situations where spending money creates more value than investing it:

When it buys back irreplaceable time. Hiring cleaning help, meal prep, or administrative support during your highest-earning years isn’t wasteful - it’s strategic. Those hours redirected toward family, health, or work that energizes you are worth far more than the cost.
When it meaningfully improves daily life. You spend 8+ hours a day working. A $2,000 home office setup that makes that time more comfortable and focused is worth more than the future value of $2,000 invested.
When the experience is time-sensitive. The trip with aging parents. A close friend’s destination wedding. These have narrow windows. Missing them to protect your savings rate means missing them permanently.
When it compounds non-financially. The professional development course that accelerates your career. The networking dinner that opens an unexpected door. Not everything that compounds shows up in your brokerage account.

The Permission Problem

Here’s what I see constantly: high-earners who don’t need more financial discipline - they need permission to spend.

You’ve internalized every message about compound interest and delayed gratification so thoroughly that spending on anything beyond necessities feels irresponsible - even when you’re crushing your goals.

You’re saving 30%+ of income, on track to retire early, net worth growing faster than expected. And you still can’t book the vacation, upgrade the uncomfortable couch, or hire help with tasks you hate.

This is the inverse of lifestyle inflation, and it’s equally destructive to well-being.

Just like some people need guardrails to prevent overspending, you might need explicit permission to enjoy what you’ve earned.

Money is meant to be used - not hoarded indefinitely while life quietly passes.

A Framework for Intentional Spending (Without the Guilt)

This isn’t about spending recklessly. It’s about intentionally funding enjoyment, meaning, and experiences that matter now - while maintaining strong financial progress.

Hit your baseline first. If you’re saving 20%+ of gross income and on track for retirement, you’ve earned the right to spend the rest without guilt.
Create a guilt-free spending category. Budget a specific amount monthly for things you genuinely enjoy - and spend it completely, without justification. The goal is enjoyment, not value optimization.
Use the 10-year test. Will you remember this in a decade? A $4,000 family trip can create memories that last a lifetime. A $4,000 couch upgrade? Probably forgotten in six months. Spend accordingly.

Remember what the money is for. Future security and present enjoyment aren’t enemies. They’re both essential parts of a life well lived.

Bottom Line: A Life Deferred Can’t Always Be Bought Back

Build wealth. Save aggressively. Invest wisely. All of that matters.

But over-optimization has costs that don’t appear on any financial statement: missed experiences that can’t be recreated, relationships quietly strained by absence, burnout that derails careers, time with people who won’t always be around.

If you’re already saving 20-30%+, ahead of schedule, crushing your goals - but still feel guilty spending on anything beyond necessities - you don’t need more discipline.

You need permission.

Permission to enjoy some of what you’ve earned. Permission to invest in experiences while you’re young enough to fully enjoy them. Permission to upgrade the things that make your daily life meaningfully better.

My client from the beginning of this piece? He finally booked the trip. He upgraded his home office. Finally did things for himself.

His savings rate dropped from 44% to 31%.

He told me it was the best financial decision he’d ever made.

A life constantly deferred can’t always be bought back - no matter how large your portfolio becomes.

Use your money accordingly.

Subscribe now

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

Opulus, LLC (“Opulus”) is a registered investment advisor in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions where exempted. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training.
The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments, nor does it endorse any specific company, security, or investment strategy. Readers should not rely on this content as the sole basis for any investment or financial decisions.
Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principal. There is no guarantee that any investment strategies discussed will result in profits or avoid losses.
All information is provided “as-is” without any warranties, express or implied. Opulus does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Opinions expressed are those of the authors, Ryan Greiser and Francis Walsh, and are subject to change without notice.
Opulus is not responsible for any errors or omissions, nor for any direct, indirect, or consequential damages resulting from the use or reliance on this information. Use of the content is at your own risk. This content is not intended as an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where such an offer or solicitation would be illegal.

The 401(k) Provision 90% of High Earners Never Check

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 12:02:58 GMT

You’re maxing your 401(k) at $24,500. You’ve captured your employer match. You think you’re done.

And that’s exactly what most financial advice tells you to do.

But here’s what that advice doesn’t mention: Your plan likely has 2-3 hidden provisions worth thousands annually. And one in particular that 90% of high earners overlook completely.

Here’s your 2026 optimization checklist—basic to advanced.

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Start With The Foundation

Most optimization begins here. Update your limits and lock in your match.

Move 1: Update Your 2026 Contribution Limits

If you’re under 50, you can contribute $24,500 in 2026 (up from $23,500 in 2025).

If you’re 50-59, add the $7,500 catch-up for a total of $32,000.

If you’re 60-63, you qualify for the enhanced catch-up: $11,250 on top of the base limit. That’s $35,750 total.

If you’re still on autopilot from last year, you’re under-contributing by $1,000 to $2,250 depending on your age.

Log into your plan this week. Update your deferral percentage to capture the full limit. This is the easiest money you’ll make all year.

Move 2: Confirm Your Company Match Formula

Know exactly what your employer contributes. Most common formulas: 50% match on 6% of salary, or 100% match on 3%.

If you earn $300,000 and your employer matches 50% on 6%, that’s $9,000 in free money annually.

Missing it = leaving that $9,000 on the table.

Check your benefits portal for the exact formula. Then adjust your contribution percentage to capture the full match. If the match is 6%, contribute at least 6%. Don’t leave a dollar behind.

The Provision 90% Miss

This is where most high earners lose thousands without knowing it.

Move 3: Check If Your Plan Has a True-Up Provision

This is the hidden mechanic that separates basic contributors from sophisticated optimizers.

Here’s how it works:

Your employer matches 6% of your salary per paycheck. You front-load your contributions and max out by June. July through December? Zero contributions = zero match for those six months.

With a true-up provision, your employer catches you up at year-end. Without it, you forfeit six months of match.

On a $300,000 salary with a 6% match, that’s $9,000 in potential match for the year. Miss half the year? You just left $4,500 on the table.

Ask HR directly: “Does our plan include a true-up provision for employer match?” Or check your Summary Plan Description (SPD).

If yes: Front-load freely. Max early if you want. The true-up protects you.

If no: Spread contributions evenly across all paychecks to maximize match. Calculate your per-paycheck percentage to hit exactly $24,500 by December 31.

This provision alone can be worth $3,000-$6,000 annually for high earners. And most people have never heard of it.

The Moves That Compound

Once the foundation is locked, these three strategies multiply the impact.

Move 4: Review Your Vesting Schedule

Vesting = how long until employer match is 100% yours.

Most plans use cliff vesting (0% until year 3, then 100%) or graded vesting (20% per year over 5 years).

Leave before fully vested = forfeit unvested match.

I’ve seen people leave jobs 2-3 months before full vesting and forfeit $15,000-$25,000. Don’t let that be you.

Check your plan’s vesting timeline. Planning a job change? Time it strategically. If you’re 90 days from full vesting, those 90 days might be worth $20,000.

Move 5: Roth vs Traditional—Don’t Default to All Traditional

Most high earners default to 100% traditional contributions because they’re in the 24%, 32%, or 35% bracket today.

But here’s what I’ve learned after reviewing hundreds of tax situations: Your tax bracket today tells you almost nothing about your optimal strategy.

Michael Kitces has a chart I reference constantly. It tracks a hypothetical household’s marginal tax rate from age 25 to 75. The line looks like a heart rate monitor—spikes during peak earning years, drops during career transitions, climbs again with business growth, crashes during recessions, rebounds in retirement.

The pattern shows what we all know but often ignore: Life changes. Income changes. Tax brackets follow.

Big promotion? Your rate jumps. Kid switches to one-income household? It drops. Start a business that struggles? You might hit 10-12% for a year. Business takes off? Back to 32-35%.

Here’s what I’ve seen work with high earners:

When you’re in peak earning years (32-37% brackets), traditional contributions make sense. Take the deduction at high rates now, withdraw later at lower rates.

When you’re in transition years—between jobs, starting a business, taking a sabbatical, or in your first few years of high income before expenses catch up—Roth contributions can be valuable. You’re locking in lower rates that might not last.

When you’re in the middle brackets (22-24%), tax diversification makes sense. Split between traditional and Roth. You’re hedging against future rate changes you can’t predict.

The mistake isn’t choosing wrong. The mistake is setting it once and forgetting it for 10 years.

Your strategy should adapt as your life does.

Move 6: Review Your Investment Selection

Most 401(k)s default you into target date funds. Convenient? Yes. Optimal? Not always.

They’re often too conservative (shifting to bonds too early) and too expensive (0.50%-0.75% expense ratios).

A 0.50% fee difference = $50,000+ over 30 years on a $500,000 balance.

Build your own allocation with low-cost index funds. Most plans offer S&P 500, total market, international, and bond indexes at 0.03%-0.10% expense ratios.

Compare the fees in your plan. The difference compounds faster than you think.

The Advanced Territory

This is high-earner optimization at the next level.

Move 7: After-Tax Contributions + Mega Backdoor Roth

Beyond the $24,500 employee deferral limit, the total contribution limit including employer match is $72,000 for 2026 (~$80,000 if age 50+).

If your plan allows after-tax contributions and in-plan Roth conversions, you can contribute tens of thousands beyond $24,500 and convert it to tax-free growth.

This requires two things:

Your plan allows after-tax contributions (not all do)
Your plan allows in-plan Roth conversions or in-service withdrawals

Check your SPD or ask HR: “Does our plan allow after-tax contributions and in-plan Roth conversions?”

If yes, work with your CPA and financial advisor to set it up properly. This isn’t DIY territory—tax treatment and timing matter.

If available, this strategy can add $30,000-$40,000+ annually in tax-free growth for high earners.

That’s it.

Most high earners think maxing your 401(k) means you’re done optimizing.

But optimization isn’t about how much you contribute. It’s about capturing every provision, timing your taxes right, and knowing which levers exist in your plan.

You don’t have to implement all seven moves this week. Pick one. Start with the foundation. Make sure you’re capturing your 2026 limits and your full match. Then check for true-up. Then layer in the rest.

The difference between basic contributors and sophisticated optimizers isn’t complexity. It’s knowing what to look for.

Now you know.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

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The 5 "Common Sense" Money Rules That Could Be Costing You $500K+

Fran Walsh — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 13:02:02 GMT

80% of Americans say they follow “common sense” money rules.

The problem? In the right situations, those rules can cost you hundreds of thousands over a lifetime.

Most financial advice is designed for the masses - simple, easy to follow, impossible to screw up. And for most people, that’s fine.

But if you’re a high-income professional who understands nuance, blindly following conventional wisdom might be the most expensive mistake you’re making.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the best financial advice is rarely one-size-fits-all. “Always” and “never” don’t account for your specific situation, your math, or your goals.

Let’s dig in ↓

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Rule #1: “Always Pay Off Your Mortgage Early”

This is financial gospel in most circles. Dave Ramsey built an empire on it. Your parents probably believe it religiously.

And for many high-income earners with low-rate mortgages, it’s mathematically wrong.

The conventional wisdom: Paying off your mortgage early is like getting a guaranteed return equal to your interest rate. No debt = peace of mind = financial freedom.

The math everyone ignores: If you have a 3% mortgage and historical stock market returns average 10% annually, you’re potentially leaving 7% annual returns on the table by aggressively paying down low-interest debt.

Here’s what that actually costs:

$500/month extra toward a 3% mortgage over 20 years = approximately $155,000 in total extra payments and you’re mortgage-free.

That same $500/month invested at 7% average returns over 20 years = approximately $262,000.

The difference: $107,000 in lost wealth from following “common sense” advice.

This doesn’t mean mortgages are always good or that you should never pay yours off. It means the decision depends on your rate, your risk tolerance, your other financial goals, and whether the psychological benefit of being debt-free is worth six figures to you.

Rule #2: “Never Carry a Balance”

This rule exists because most people lack financial discipline. High-interest credit card debt at 18-24% APR is financial suicide.

But the rule misses an important nuance: not all balances are created equal.

The conventional wisdom: Any credit card balance is bad. Pay it off immediately or you’re being irresponsible.

The strategic reality: A 0% promotional balance can be a tool for liquidity and strategic deployment of capital—if you have the discipline to use it properly.

Real scenario: You have $10,000 in unexpected home repairs. You have the cash, but you also have a 0% APR balance transfer offer for 18 months.

Option A: Pay cash immediately. Your $10,000 is gone.

Option B: Use the 0% balance, invest the $10,000 at 7% for 18 months, then pay off the balance before interest kicks in. You’ve earned approximately $1,050 on money that would have otherwise been immediately spent.

The key distinction: 0% promotional rates with no fees and a disciplined payoff plan is fundamentally different from carrying 22% APR balances while making minimum payments.

One is strategic use of available capital. The other is financial self-destruction.

Rule #3: “Buy as Much House as You Can Afford”

This might be the most financially destructive advice in mainstream culture.

Banks will approve you for far more house than you should actually buy. Real estate agents make more commission on expensive houses. Society equates home size with success.

The result? People become “house poor” - massive mortgages, minimal savings, constant financial stress.

The conventional wisdom: Real estate is your best investment. Maximize your housing since it’s “forced savings” through equity.

The brutal reality: Your house doesn’t pay you dividends. It costs you—in mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and opportunity cost.

The math: Let’s say you’re approved for a $600,000 house but buy a $400,000 house instead.

$200,000 less in mortgage = approximately $1,200/month saved in payment.

That $1,200/month invested over 20 years at 7% = approximately $627,000.

Plus, you’re not stressed about the payment. You have margin in your budget. You can maintain a 20%+ savings rate. You can weather job loss or income disruption without panic.

Buying below your approval amount isn’t “leaving money on the table.” It’s choosing liquid, growing wealth over illiquid home equity and financial stress.

Your house should serve your life - not consume it.

Rule #4: “Always Max Out Pre-Tax Accounts First”

This advice dominates retirement planning. “Lower your taxes today!” But it ignores a critical question: what if taxes are higher when you retire?

The conventional wisdom: Pre-tax contributions (traditional 401k, traditional IRA) reduce your taxable income now. Pay less tax today, deal with it in retirement.

The strategic problem: You’re making a bet that your tax rate will be lower in retirement than it is today. For many high-income professionals who save aggressively, that bet is wrong.

If you’re in the 24% bracket now and the 32% bracket in retirement (because you saved well and have substantial required minimum distributions), you’ve actually increased your lifetime tax burden.

Real scenario:

$10,000 contributed to traditional 401k in 24% bracket = $2,400 tax savings today, but $3,200+ tax bill on withdrawal in 32% bracket
$10,000 contributed to Roth (after paying $2,400 in taxes) = $0 tax on withdrawal ever, regardless of future brackets or tax law changes

Over 30 years at 7% growth, that $10,000 becomes approximately $76,000. The Roth version is entirely tax-free. The traditional version could face $24,000+ in taxes due.

Tax diversification - having money in both pre-tax and Roth accounts - gives you flexibility to optimize withdrawals based on actual tax situations in retirement. Putting everything in pre-tax because “that’s what you’re supposed to do” eliminates that flexibility.

Rule #5: “Always Keep 6 Months of Expenses in Cash”

This rule exists to prevent people from going into debt during emergencies. It’s solid advice for most Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.

But for high-income professionals with stable careers and multiple financial options? It might be costing you serious returns.

The conventional wisdom: 6 months cash = safety. Anything less = reckless.

The opportunity cost: With inflation at 3%, your cash loses approximately 3% of purchasing power annually. Meanwhile, that money could be invested or at a minimum sitting in a high-yield savings account or US treasury beating inflation so you aren’t losing purchasing power.

The math: $50,000 sitting in cash for 10 years:

In a 1% high-yield savings account = approximately $55,000 (loses ground to inflation)
Invested at 7% average annual returns = approximately $98,000

That’s $43,000 in lost wealth from “playing it safe.”

This doesn’t mean eliminate your emergency fund. It means question whether someone with stable $200K income, a working spouse, access to a HELOC, and a portfolio line of credit needs the same emergency fund as someone making $50K with no backup options.

Context matters. Your emergency fund should reflect your actual risk profile, not a one-size-fits-all rule.

The Framework: How to Decide Which Rules Apply to You

Here’s how to evaluate whether conventional wisdom applies to your situation:

Step 1: Run the actual math. What does following versus breaking this rule cost or gain over 10-20 years? Use real numbers, not assumptions.

Step 2: Assess your specific situation. Stable income or variable? High risk tolerance or low? Building your foundation or already financially secure? These factors change everything.

Step 3: Consider your psychology. Can you sleep at night with a mortgage when you could pay it off? Can you tolerate market volatility? Some people would rather pay the “peace of mind tax” than optimize every dollar - and that’s a legitimate choice.

Step 4: Calculate your margin for error. Do you have room to be wrong? Can you absorb a worst-case scenario if your strategy doesn’t work perfectly?

Step 5: Make the conscious choice. Don’t follow rules blindly because “that’s what everyone does.” Don’t break them recklessly because you read an article. Understand exactly what you’re doing and why.

The Biggest Mistake: Treating All Advice as Universal

The financial advice industry loves absolute rules because they’re easy to package and sell.

“Always do this.” “Never do that.” “Everyone should follow this strategy.”

It’s simple. It’s memorable. And for many people, it prevents catastrophic mistakes.

But simple rules for complex situations often lead to suboptimal outcomes.

A 25-year-old with $10,000 saved and a 7.5% mortgage could consider probably pay it off aggressively. A 35-year-old with $500,000 invested and a 2.75% mortgage should probably consider keeping it and invest the difference.

Same “rule.” Completely different situations. Opposite optimal strategies.

The people who build the most wealth don’t blindly follow or blindly break rules. They understand the principles behind the rules, evaluate their specific context, and make intentional decisions.

Bottom Line: Context Matters More Than Rules

Financial rules exist to simplify decisions for people who don’t want to think deeply about money.

But “always” and “never” advice doesn’t account for:

Your specific tax situation and future tax trajectory
Your risk tolerance and psychological relationship with money
Your career stability and income reliability
Your timeline and life stage
Your actual financial goals (not generic ones)

The best financial plans aren’t built on someone else’s blanket advice. They’re built on YOUR circumstances, YOUR math, and YOUR priorities.

Sometimes that means following conventional wisdom because it genuinely applies to you.

Sometimes it means doing the exact opposite because your situation demands it.

The key is knowing the difference - and having the confidence to make decisions based on your reality, not someone else’s rules.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

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3 Legal Ways to Reposition Your Child's UTMA Before Age 21

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 12:02:37 GMT

A client called me last week. Her voice had that tight, controlled panic you hear when someone just realized a problem that’s ten years away but feels urgent today.

“My in-laws set up a UTMA for my son. It’s at $75K now. He gets it all at 21… that’s in ten years. There’s no way he’ll be ready.”

Here’s what most parents don’t know: You’re not stuck with a decision made a decade ago. You have legal ways to reposition that money. But the options narrow the closer you get.

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Why this creates a problem

Most 21-year-olds aren’t ready to manage $75K responsibly.

Not because they’re irresponsible. Because they’ve never had to make high-stakes financial decisions under real pressure.

First job. First apartment. First taste of real money.

That’s a recipe for expensive mistakes.

UTMA stands for Uniform Transfers to Minors Act—a custodial account that lets you transfer assets to a minor without setting up a formal trust. The adult (you or the grandparent who opened it) manages the money until the child reaches the “age of termination.”

Then it all transfers to them.

And here’s the legal reality: You can’t just hold onto the money.

The moment your child hits the termination age—18 or 21, depending on your state—the account must transfer. No conditions, no oversight, no “let me hold this for you.”

Source: Kitces.com

Withholding it? That’s breach of fiduciary duty.

Your window to act? Right now.

Estate planning attorney David Haughton recently published a comprehensive breakdown of these strategies at Kitces.com. Here’s what I’ve learned working through them with my clients.

Strategy #1: Spend it down strategically

Use the UTMA money on things that enrich your child’s life—but aren’t your legal obligation to provide.

Qualifying expenses:

Summer camps
A car
Tutoring
Travel experiences
Sports equipment

Not qualifying (these are support obligations):

Food
Housing
Basic clothing

Here’s the smart repositioning move:

Spend the UTMA money on qualifying expenses. Then take the cash you would’ve spent out of pocket—and move it into an account YOU control: a 529, a brokerage account, whatever works for you.

You’ve given your child the benefit of that money. But you’ve kept control of equivalent funds.

Works best when: Your balance is under $50K and you have 3-5+ years until termination.

One caution: If you liquidate investments to spend down, watch the kiddie tax. Your child’s unearned income over $2,700 gets taxed at YOUR rate—not theirs. Small balances? Probably fine. Big gains? Talk to your CPA first.

This strategy buys you time. It doesn’t eliminate the problem—but it reduces the dollar amount that transfers when your child hits 21.

Strategy #2: Transfer to a UTMA 529

Same termination age. But now there’s friction.

You move the UTMA assets into a UTMA 529 plan. Your child still gets control at 18 or 21—but non-education withdrawals trigger taxes plus a 10% penalty on earnings.

Most kids won’t blow their college fund on a Tesla.

How to execute:

Liquidate the UTMA (529s only accept cash)
Open a UTMA 529 in your child’s name
Transfer the proceeds

The constraint: You cannot change the beneficiary. This money is still locked to your child—just with guardrails around non-education use.

Ideal for: $30K–$100K balances and college-bound kids.

Bonus move: Unused 529 funds can now roll into a Roth IRA—up to $35K lifetime limit. That’s a tax-free retirement account, funded early, for your kid.

Same caution: If you’re liquidating big gains (over $2,700 in unearned income), you’ll trigger kiddie tax at your rate. Run the numbers first.

This strategy doesn’t delay access—but it makes reckless withdrawals expensive enough that most kids won’t do it.

Strategy #3: Convert to a 2503(c) trust

Most protective. Most complex.

Here’s how it works: At termination age, your child gets a 30–60 day window to withdraw everything. If they don’t exercise that right? The money stays in trust until the age you specify—25, 30, even later.

You must notify your child of their withdrawal rights. That’s the law.

But here’s what happens in practice: Most kids won’t pull the trigger if they trust your judgment and the money’s been managed well.

It’s not about control. It’s about maturity.

Requirements:

Estate attorney (yes, legal fees)
Start the process an attorney at least 1–2 years before your child hits termination age

Why the timeline matters: The legal work takes time, and the closer you get to termination, the less runway you have to make the fees worth it. If your child turns 21 in six months, you’re probably too late.

Consider this when: Your balance exceeds $100K or you have serious readiness concerns.

This isn’t about withholding money from your child. It’s about matching money to maturity.

If your child needs the funds at 21—for a business, a home down payment, legitimate expenses—they can take them. But if they’re not ready? The trust keeps it safe until they are.

This strategy gives your child a choice at 21. But it doesn’t force them to take money they’re not ready to manage.

That’s it.

The UTMA panic my client felt wasn’t really about the money.

It was about feeling trapped by a decision someone else made years ago—before she knew what her son would need, before she understood the stakes, before the account had grown to $75K.

But here’s the truth: You’re not trapped.

You have legal options. Time is still on your side—if you act now. And you have a chance to set your child up for long-term success, not just a short-term windfall.

This isn’t about control. It’s about readiness.

Check your state’s termination age today. Not next year. Then talk to an estate attorney or financial advisor before that deadline gets close.

The best gift you can give your child isn’t the money. It’s making sure they’re ready for it when it arrives.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

— Ryan

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

The Simple 10-Year Test That Prevents Expensive Regrets

Fran Walsh — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 13:03:20 GMT

In 10 years, will you regret spending $40,000 on this, or regret NOT spending it?

That’s the question that cuts through 90% of financial decision paralysis.

Most people agonize over big money choices - the house upgrade, the career change, the business idea, the family trip - because they’re using the wrong framework to evaluate them.

They obsess over spreadsheets, calculate ROI, stress about opportunity cost, and ask everyone for opinions.

And they still can’t decide.

Here’s why: they’re optimizing for the wrong variable. They’re trying to make the “smartest” financial choice when they should be asking a much simpler question.

Will I remember or care about this decision in 10 years?

That one question eliminates most of the noise and forces you to evaluate what actually matters.

Let’s dig in ↓

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Why Most Financial Decision-Making Fails

Here’s the problem: people reduce everything to pure math. “Which choice maximizes my net worth in 30 years?”

That sounds rational. But it ignores a fundamental truth: you’re not optimizing for maximum net worth. You’re optimizing for a life you actually want to live.

The person who retires with $5 million but missed their kids’ childhood didn’t “win.” The person who delayed every meaningful experience until retirement and died at 63 didn’t make the “smart” choice.

Pure financial optimization without considering life satisfaction is a game you can win mathematically while losing practically.

The 10-year test forces you to consider both financial AND experiential returns.

The 10-Year Test: How It Actually Works

Before any major financial decision, ask: “In 10 years, will I remember this? Will I care about it? Will it have mattered?”

This reveals whether you’re creating lasting value or just making a decision that sounds good today.

The $8,000 Vacation

Pure math: $8,000 invested at 7% for 10 years becomes $15,740. You’re “losing” $7,740 in future wealth.

The 10-year test: Will you remember this trip? Will your kids? Will it create stories retold for decades?

If yes - the trip to Europe with aging parents, the adventure with teenagers before they’re gone - the $7,740 portfolio “loss” is irrelevant.

If no - just another forgettable beach resort - maybe the math matters more.

The test isn’t about right or wrong. It’s about conscious choice.

The $50,000 Car vs. $30,000 Car

Pure math: The $20,000 difference becomes $39,000 in 10 years, plus higher ongoing costs.

The 10-year test: Will you remember or care that you drove the nicer car? Will it have enhanced your life meaningfully?

For most people? No. Both cars get you to work. In 10 years, you won’t remember which one you drove.

But maybe you’re a genuine car enthusiast. Maybe the reliability difference reduces real stress. Maybe the safety features matter for a young family.

The test separates genuine value from status signaling.

The $400K House vs. $600K House

Pure math: The $200,000 difference invested becomes approximately $393,000 in 10 years.

The 10-year test: Will the bigger house improve your daily life? Will you use the extra space? Does it enable something meaningful - better schools, eliminated commute, home office that enables career growth?

If it’s just “nicer” without functional improvement, the test suggests the smaller house.

If it fundamentally changes how you live, work, or raise your kids - it’s worth the premium.

The Opportunity Cost That Actually Matters

Traditional opportunity cost: “If I spend $X, I lose $X compounded at Y% for Z years.”

That’s mathematically accurate but practically incomplete.

Better framework: “If I spend $X on this, what am I giving up? And will I regret that trade-off in 10 years?”

Example: $40,000 Career Break

Traditional thinking: $40,000 compounded at 7% for 20 years = $154,920. That’s what this break “costs.”

Better thinking: What happens if you DON’T take the break?

Maybe you burn out completely and leave your $200,000/year career for a $120,000 job. Over 20 years, that’s $1.6 million in lost income - far more than the break costs.

Maybe the break leads to career clarity that increases lifetime earnings by $500,000+.

Maybe you just need the break and 10 years from now you’ll be glad you took it.

The real opportunity cost isn’t just “money not invested.” It’s “what does this enable or prevent in my life?”

The Regret Minimization Framework

Jeff Bezos uses this for major decisions: project yourself to age 80 and ask which choice you’ll regret NOT making.

The Business You Didn’t Start

You’re 35 with a stable $150,000 job and $200,000 saved. You have a business idea requiring you to quit and invest $50,000.

The risk: If it fails, you’ve lost income and savings.

The regret question: At 80, will you regret NOT trying? Or will you regret the financial setback?

For most people, the regret of not trying far outweighs the regret of a failed attempt. You can recover financially from a $50,000 loss. You can’t recover the opportunity to pursue something meaningful when you had the energy and runway.

The framework doesn’t say “always take the risk.” It says “take the risks you’ll regret not taking.”

When to Optimize for Today vs. Tomorrow

Optimize for today when:

The experience is time-sensitive (aging parents, young kids, physical capability)
You’re financially on track and this doesn’t derail long-term goals
The opportunity won’t exist in 10 years
You’ll remember it in a decade

Optimize for tomorrow when:

You’re not financially stable yet (no emergency fund, high debt, minimal savings)
The purchase won’t be memorable in 10 years
Better opportunities will exist later with more resources
You’re buying primarily for status or validation

Key insight: You don’t choose one strategy forever. Optimize for tomorrow while building your foundation, then shift toward today once you’re stable.

The Real Decision Framework

Here’s how to use this for your next big financial decision:

Step 1: Name the decision and dollar amount.

Step 2: Project 10 years forward. Will you remember/care?

Step 3: Calculate the real opportunity cost. What’s the alternative? What does THAT cost?

Step 4: Ask the regret question. At 80, which choice will you regret?

Step 5: Consider your current position. Can you absorb this cost given your financial situation?

Step 6: Make the call based on YOUR values and what YOU will care about in 10 years.

Bottom Line: Money Is a Tool, Not the Goal

The 10-year test works because it forces you to remember what money is actually for.

Money isn’t the goal. It’s the tool that enables the life you want to live.

Sometimes that means spending it on experiences you’ll remember forever, even if the spreadsheet says invest it. Sometimes that means investing aggressively now for freedom later, even if it means saying no today.

The “right” answer isn’t universal. It’s personal.

But the wrong answer IS universal: making financial decisions purely on math while ignoring whether you’ll actually care about the outcome in a decade.

Before your next major financial decision, ask yourself: “In 10 years, will I regret this choice? Or will I regret NOT making it?”

That question cuts through the noise and helps you make decisions you’ll be happy with a decade from now.

Because the goal isn’t to die with the most money. It’s to live a life you’ll remember.

See you next week.

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

What Viral HSA Posts Don't Tell You

Ryan Greiser, CFP® — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 12:02:48 GMT

Over the last few months, I’ve watched HSA content go viral on repeat.

“Ultimate tax hack!” Triple tax savings. Grows forever. Better than a Roth.

The posts rack up thousands of likes. The comments fill with people asking where to sign up.

And I get it. On paper, HSAs deliver everything promised.

But here’s what those viral posts don’t mention: To access an HSA, you must accept a High Deductible Health Plan. You’re not just choosing a savings account. You’re choosing a completely different healthcare cost structure.

The irony? You pay more out-of-pocket to access the tax savings.

After running the numbers for countless clients, here’s what most people miss:

There are 4 landmines. And most people don’t see them until it’s too late.

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The mandatory trade-off

To get HSA access, you don’t just open an account. You accept an HDHP—a High Deductible Health Plan.

That’s not a minor detail. It’s a structural trade-off that changes how you pay for healthcare.

Traditional plans spread costs across premiums and copays. You pay more monthly, but your out-of-pocket exposure is predictable and capped low.

HDHPs flip the model. Lower premiums. Higher deductibles. You self-insure until you hit a threshold that can run $3,000 for individuals or $6,000 for families.

The tax savings are real. But they come with strings most viral posts never mention.

The 4 landmines most people miss

Landmine 1: The aggregate deductible trap

Here’s the one that catches families hardest.

Traditional plans use “embedded” deductibles. Coverage kicks in when any single family member hits their individual limit. One kid breaks an arm? You hit $1,500, and insurance starts covering.

HDHPs use “aggregate” deductibles. The entire family deductible must be met before coverage begins for anyone.

Real impact: If your family deductible is $6,000 and one kid hits $2,000 in expenses, insurance pays nothing. Not until the whole family hits $6,000 combined.

Families with multiple people needing care can pay 3-4x more out-of-pocket before their plan helps. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a different financial reality.

Landmine 2: The hidden cost multiplier

HDHPs apply deductibles to nearly everything: prescriptions, specialist visits, ER trips, imaging, lab work.

Traditional plans? Fixed copays that don’t count toward your deductible.

Example: Your kid takes a $1,000/month specialty medication.

PPO Plan:

$100 copay per month
Predictable, manageable cost

HDHP:

Full $1,000/month until you hit your deductible
For a $3,000 individual deductible, that’s three months at full retail before insurance kicks in

The math changes fast when medications or specialists are in the mix.

Landmine 3: The coverage restriction problem

To maintain HSA eligibility, you can’t have any other disqualifying health coverage. Not some. Any.

This disqualifies you:

Secondary coverage on your spouse’s plan
Medicaid coverage
Certain FSAs or HRAs

These aren’t hypothetical edge cases. They’re situations that happen to real people trying to optimize across life transitions.

The tax savings come with strings. Make sure you’re not already holding coverage that disqualifies you.

Landmine 4: The tax math paradox

This is the one that surprised me most when I started running projections for clients.

Even with disciplined saving and triple tax benefits, the math doesn’t always work in favor of the HDHP.

Research from Michael Kitces tested this head-to-head. Person in the 22% tax bracket. Saves $4,300/year in an HSA for 30 years. Invests at 8%. Result: $719,000 tax-free.

Same person with a PPO plan saves $2,307 more per year on premiums and out-of-pocket costs combined. Invests that $6,607/year in a taxable brokerage account. Result: $874,000 after-tax.

PPO beats HDHP + HSA by $155,000 over 30 years. That’s $63,000 in today’s dollars.

The gotcha? If your medical cost savings from the traditional plan outpace the HSA tax benefits, you lose. And for families with ongoing care needs, that’s exactly what happens.

So when do HSAs actually make sense?

When all of these conditions align at once:

High income
Low medical expenses
Long time horizon
Ability to max-fund the account every year and never touch it

If you can self-insure and maximize the tax arbitrage, HSAs are powerful. The tax-free growth compounds beautifully if you leave the money untouched for decades.

But that’s the qualifier most advice leaves out. You need to be able to afford full retail healthcare costs while simultaneously maxing the HSA contribution. Most families can’t do both.

The factors that favor HSAs—high tax bracket, long time horizon, ability to save and invest—need to outweigh the factors working against them. High medical expenses, good non-HDHP options, and moderate risk tolerance all push the math in the other direction.

No single factor decides it. But when you map your situation across this spectrum, the picture becomes clearer.

Here’s the framework

Compare the full picture for your situation. Not generic advice. Your numbers.

Run these three numbers for yourself:

Annual premium difference (HDHP vs. traditional plan)
Expected out-of-pocket costs based on your actual medical usage
Tax savings from both structures

Family size matters. Prescription needs matter. Medical history matters more than the tax code.

The HSA isn’t a stealth IRA for everyone. It’s a stealth IRA for people who can afford to self-insure and maximize the tax arbitrage.

Know which camp you’re in.

That’s it.

The next time you see a viral HSA post rack up thousands of likes, remember what’s missing.

The triple tax savings are real. The tax-free growth is powerful. But the viral posts stop at the benefits and skip the trade-offs.

You’re not choosing between a good account and a great account. You’re choosing between two completely different ways to pay for healthcare. One protects you from costs up front. The other makes you self-insure first.

For some people—high earners with low medical expenses and long time horizons—the HDHP structure works beautifully. The HSA becomes exactly what it’s marketed as: a stealth IRA with triple tax advantages.

For everyone else? The traditional plan might quietly outperform the “ultimate tax hack” by six figures over 30 years.

Run your numbers. Not the generic advice. Yours.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

The Newsletter That Made Me Stop Everything (And Why You Should Read It Too)

Fran Walsh — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:02:48 GMT

I just read something that made me close my laptop, grab a notebook, and spend an entire day questioning everything about my life.

Dan Koe published a newsletter called “How to fix your entire life in 1 day” and it’s one of those rare pieces of content that actually lives up to its title.

I’m not going to recreate his framework here - you should read the original. But I do want to talk about why it hit so hard, and more importantly, how it applies directly to the financial patterns I see destroying people’s wealth-building potential every single week.

Because here’s what I realized working through his protocol: most people’s money problems aren’t actually money problems. They’re identity problems. Belief problems. Unconscious pattern problems that no amount of budgeting or investment optimization can fix.

Let’s dig in ↓

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Your Money Problems Aren’t Money Problems

Here’s what makes Dan’s approach different from typical productivity or self-help content: he doesn’t give you another system to follow. He forces you to excavate the unconscious beliefs that make you need the system in the first place.

And when I applied this lens to money, everything clicked.

I’ve watched countless high-income clients struggle financially despite having more than enough resources. They know what to do - save 20%, invest in index funds, max tax-advantaged accounts, avoid lifestyle inflation. They’ve read the books. They understand compound interest.

But they still can’t do it consistently. And they beat themselves up for “lacking discipline” or “being bad with money.”

The problem isn’t knowledge. It’s not even discipline. It’s that their unconscious financial identity is running a completely different program than their conscious goals.

The Identity You’re Protecting Is Keeping You Broke

Dan talks about how all behavior is goal-oriented, even when those goals are unconscious. This is devastatingly true with money.

You say you want to build wealth, but you can’t stop spending money to look successful. You’re not lacking willpower - you’re pursuing the unconscious goal of social validation that was programmed into you decades ago.

You say you want financial independence, but you stay in the high-paying job you hate. You’re not lacking courage - you’re pursuing the unconscious goal of safety that your parents drilled into you through their own financial anxiety.

You say you want to save more, but you obsessively check your accounts and panic during every market dip. You’re not lacking education - you’re pursuing the unconscious goal of control in a world that feels fundamentally unsafe.

Your conscious mind says “build wealth.” Your unconscious mind says “stay safe” or “look successful” or “don’t risk failure.” And the unconscious mind wins every single time until you make it conscious.

What Dan’s Protocol Actually Does

The framework Dan provides isn’t comfortable. It’s designed to create dissonance - that gap between who you think you are and who your behavior reveals you to be.

For money specifically, this means confronting:

The financial life you’re actually building (not the one you tell yourself you want). If nothing changes, where will you be in 10 years? What does that version of you regret? What opportunities closed? Be specific and brutally honest.

The unconscious financial beliefs running your behavior. What did your parents teach you about money through their stress, their fights, their choices? What did your peer group condition you to believe success looks like? These aren’t abstract questions - they’re the operating system determining every financial decision you make.

The identity you’re protecting that keeps you stuck. “I’m not good with money.” “I deserve nice things after working hard.” “Rich people are greedy.” “I’ll never be wealthy like them.” Which story are you clinging to? And what is that story costing you?

The financial life you actually want (which might be completely different from what you’ve been chasing). Not what sounds impressive. Not what your parents want. Not what your peers are doing. What do YOU actually want your relationship with money to create?

Why This Matters More Than Any Financial Strategy

You can have the perfect investment allocation. You can optimize your tax strategy. You can know exactly how much to save to retire early.

But if your unconscious identity is “I’m not the type of person who builds wealth” or “Money is stressful and shameful,” none of that technical advice will stick.

You’ll self-sabotage. You’ll find excuses. You’ll get partway there and blow it up. Not because you’re broken or lazy, but because you’re unconsciously protecting an identity that doesn’t align with wealth-building.

This is why some people making $80K steadily build seven-figure net worths while others making $300K stay broke. It’s not the income. It’s the identity.

The Question That Reveals If You Need This

Here’s how you know if this work matters for you:

Do your financial results match your stated financial goals?

If you say you want to build wealth but your net worth hasn’t meaningfully increased in years - you need this.

If you say you want financial freedom but you feel more financially stressed now than five years ago - you need this.

If you say money isn’t that important but you constantly stress about it, compare yourself to others, or make decisions based on how they’ll look financially - you need this.

The gap between what you say you want and what your behavior creates is the gap this protocol fills.

What I’m Asking You to Do

I’m not going to recreate Dan’s framework here. That would miss the point entirely.

What I’m asking is this: go read his newsletter. Actually work through the protocol. Spend 1-2 hours on it.

Set aside your phone. Grab a notebook. Answer the uncomfortable questions. Create the anti-vision of the life you’re avoiding. Build the vision of what you’re moving toward. Break your autopilot patterns. Synthesize the insights.

And as you’re doing it, apply every single question to your relationship with money:

What financial dissatisfaction have you learned to tolerate?
What’s the financial life you’re unconsciously building if nothing changes?
What financial identity are you protecting that’s keeping you stuck?
What would your financial life look like if you became the person capable of building real wealth?

The protocol works because it forces you to see the gap between who you think you are and who your behavior reveals you to be. That dissonance - that discomfort - is where transformation starts.

Bottom Line: Knowledge Isn’t Your Problem

You don’t need another article about index funds or savings rates or the 4% rule.

You need to excavate the unconscious beliefs about money, success, and worth that were programmed into you before you could think critically about them.

You need to create visceral awareness of the financial life you’re accidentally building versus the one you actually want.

You need to fundamentally shift your financial identity before any tactical advice will stick.

Dan’s framework does this. Not just for money - for everything. But when I applied it specifically to financial behavior, it revealed patterns I didn’t even know I was running.

One day. Uncomfortable questions. Brutal honesty about the financial identity you’re protecting.

See you next week.

Subscribe now

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 other ways we can help you:

30-Day Strategy Sprint: Got a specific financial challenge holding you back? In just 30 days, we’ll tackle 1-3 of your biggest money roadblocks and hand you a personalized action plan. Perfect if you want expert guidance without a long-term commitment. Limited spots available.
Ongoing Wealth Partnership: We’ll work with you month after month to slash your taxes, find hidden income opportunities, and build lasting wealth. You set the life goals. We handle the financial strategy to get you there faster.

Opulus, LLC (“Opulus”) is a registered investment advisor in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions where exempted. Registration as an investment advisor does not imply any specific level of skill or training.
The content of this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. It is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or investments, nor does it endorse any specific company, security, or investment strategy. Readers should not rely on this content as the sole basis for any investment or financial decisions.
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