Financial Planning

Top 4 Critical RSU Stock Award Mistakes to Avoid: Tax Traps, Planning Errors & Investment Risks

Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), otherwise known as stock awards, can be a powerful component of your compensation package, offering the [...]

Financial Planning

How Tariffs and Inflation Could Impact Your Portfolio: What Investors Need to Know

The Emotional Impact of Economic Change Headlines about economic changes, particularly those involving tariffs, can trigger strong emotions among investors. [...]

Financial Planning

Facing Job Uncertainty? These 5 Questions Can Help You Prepare

Are you a government or corporate employee who’s concerned about layoffs? If so, you’re not alone. As of March 2025, [...]

Financial Planning

Headlines, Tariffs, & Your Investment Strategy

The first couple of months of 2025 have seen some volatility in the stock market and frequent headlines related to [...]

Retirement Taxes

How to Use Your HSA as a Retirement Account

You are probably familiar with health savings accounts (HSAs), which can be used to cover certain healthcare costs with pre-tax [...]

Retirement

What You Need to Know About Retirement Plan Changes in 2025

When the calendar turns to 2025, there will be some substantially higher catch up contributions (part of SECURE 2.0) that [...]

Market Update

Q3 2024 Market Update

In today’s blog, I’m going to review detailed information looking back at Q3’s market, as noted by Dimension’s Quarterly Review. [...]

Taxes

5 Tax Minimization Strategies to Consider Before Year-End

When is the worst time to do tax planning? My answer is any time after January 1st!  Why? Because many [...]

Financial Planning

5 Common Insurance Planning Mistakes You Might Want to Avoid

Getting your insurance organized can help give you financial peace of mind, avoid surprises, and fill potential gaps in your [...]

Taxes

How to Take Tax-Free and Penalty-Free Withdrawals from Roth IRA Accounts

Are you wondering if you should put more money into a Roth IRA, a Roth 401(k), a Roth 403(b), or [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Three Potential Opportunities Investors and Marathon Runners Could Miss When Using a ‘Set-It-and-Forget-It’ Strategy

Do you worry about missing opportunities to protect and maximize your 401(k)? If so, you’re not alone. You’re like many [...]

Market Update

Mid-year Market Update: Stocks Maintain Momentum at Year’s Halfway Point

In today’s blog, I’m going to review detailed information on mid-year markets, as noted by Dimensional’s mid-year market update. But [...]

Estate Planning

Four Big Estate Planning Mistakes You’ll Want to Avoid

Despite the importance of estate planning, it’s easy to procrastinate or delay getting one put in place. But not having [...]

Financial Planning

5 Critical Wealth Management Questions to Ask During an Employment Change

In today’s blog post, we will dive into five critical wealth management questions to ask during an employment change. Sometimes, [...]

Money Marathon Taxes

Money Marathon Risk #3: You Could Go Off Course With Your Tax Minimization Strategy

We’re in a fun money marathon series using some running stories and analogies to teach and explore how investors could [...]

Financial Planning

Could You Turn Your Drinking Problem Into $500,000?

Today’s topic hurts a little bit. It’s about one of my habits that is more costly than I would like [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Money Marathon Risk #2: Letting Financial Worry Hold You Back from Running Your Best Race and Living Your Best Life

We are in a series exploring seven potential risks of running a money marathon alone without any support. We will [...]

Taxes

The Child Tax Credit: What It Is and How Married or Divorced Couples Can Maximize It

At One Life Financial Group, we are in a heavy tax season, having many conversations with clients and their accountants [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Money Marathon Risk #1: Your Plan Could Crash

Welcome back to our Money Marathon series, where we’re having some fun using running analogies and stories to explore how [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

5 Steps to Run Your Best Money Marathon

You probably know what a marathon is. It’s a 26.2-mile foot race, and there are 26.2 checkpoints that runners cross [...]

Taxes

8 Things You Need to Know Now About 2023 Taxes

Spring is almost here, which also means tax season! Here are eight things to know before you file those taxes. [...]

Financial Planning

5 Tax Changes Could Help Boost Your Wealth In 2024

The Federal Reserve made significant progress in bringing down inflation while maintaining growth in the U.S. economy in 2023. However, [...]

Financial Planning

Why It’s Critical to Go Into Retirement with a Tax Strategy

In today’s Money Marathon Post, we are going to be exploring the optimal retirement fueling strategy for retirement, and to [...]

Financial Planning

Four Things That Could Cause a Financial Crash in Retirement

If this is your first time visiting our money marathon series, we are currently using running analogies to show you [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

What Happens When You Run a Marathon with No Training, and How That Relates to Your Financial Life

As usual for this series, we are discussing some running stories and analogies that can help you explore how to [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Why I Think This Painful Wealth Management Exercise is Also One of the Most Beneficial You Can Do

In our Money Marathon series, I’m using some running stories and analogies to teach investors how to get more potential [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Three Questions That Could Help You Get More Mileage Out of Your Marathon Training & Your Money

We are in a blog series discussing how strategies for running marathons could help you maximize your wealth in a [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

How to Combat Financial Stress: Have a Backup Plan for Your Plan

We are in a blog series discussing how strategies for running marathons could help you maximize your wealth in a [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Should You Bet Your Financial Future on Artificial Intelligence?

We are in a blog series discussing how strategies for running marathons could help you maximize your wealth in a [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

What to Do When Your Plan Hits the Fan: Strategies for Marathons & Wealth Management

We are in a blog series discussing how strategies for running marathons could help you maximize your wealth in a [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

Why You Need a Contingency Plan in Marathons and in Wealth Management

We are in a series discussing how strategies for running marathons could help you maximize your wealth in a meaningful [...]

Financial Planning Money Marathon

How Are Marathons and Wealth Management Alike?

Have you ever run a marathon? Every year, around 1.1 million people run a marathon; inevitably, spectators and even some [...]

Taxes

Can a Roth IRA Account Lower Your Lifetime Tax Bill?

As a child, I was given the opportunity to work on a friend’s family farm and learn a couple of [...]

Financial Planning

Should You Be Worried About the U.S. Dollar as a Reserve Currency?

Recent headlines have some people worried about the dominance of the U.S. dollar and where the U.S. dollar stands as [...]

Taxes

5 Tax Changes Could Help Boost Your Wealth In 2023

2022 was a year of inflation, stock market volatility, and rising interest rates. Rising costs have prompted IRS updates, which [...]

Taxes

Does a Roth IRA Conversion Make Sense for You? Six Questions to Ask that Will Help You Make that Decision.

Roth conversions are strategies investors can use to help minimize their future tax bill and give them more potential control [...]

Taxes

5 Last-Minute Strategies You Need to Know That Could Reduce Your 2022 Tax Bill

Will you need to do any last-minute shopping this holiday season? I do! If you need last-minute tax strategies, we [...]

Taxes

Four Different Ways to Do a Roth Conversion (Plus How to Contribute to a Roth IRA if You Are a High-Income Earner)

A Roth IRA conversion typically involves transferring retirement funds from a traditional-type IRA, a 401(k) or 403(b), into a Roth [...]

Taxes

Could Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) Push You Into the Next Tax Bracket (And Is There Anything You Can Do About It)?

Differences in Required Minimum Distributions In my last post, I introduced you to the required minimum distribution (RMD) requirements Uncle [...]

Taxes

Do You Have Too Much Cash in the Bank?

I run into many people who wonder how much cash they should have in the bank. It’s not uncommon to [...]

Financial Planning Taxes

Four Opportunities to Consider in a Down Market

Since the beginning of 2022, the markets have been experiencing volatility over concerns about rising inflation and interest rates. The [...]

Financial Advice Financial Planning

Ukraine and Your Investments: What You Can Do Right Now

Our hearts and prayers go out to the courageous people of Ukraine as we watch the brazen attack by Russia [...]

Financial Planning

Are You Feeling Worried or Stressed About Stock Market Volatility?

Monday was a wild day in the stock market, and both rate hikes and inflation are hot topics in the [...]

Financial Planning Retirement Taxes

Make Too Much to Fund a Roth IRA? These Three Strategies Could Help You!

Taxes drive a lot of our personal finance and many everyday decisions. Strategies to minimize taxes, both now and in [...]

Financial Planning Retirement Taxes

Roth IRAs Have Some Significant Benefits. Here’s How They Could Help You.

You’ve probably heard of a Roth IRA — it’s a retirement account that you can contribute to with after-tax dollars. [...]

Financial Advice Financial Planning Taxes

Six Valuable Benefits of Hiring a Financial Advisor

Many people often wonder if it is worth it to pay a financial advisor to manage their wealth. I hear [...]

South Padre Island

Financial Advice Financial Planning

Surviving the Texas Power Outage: Lessons on Being Prepared for Financial Emergencies

Texas just endured a historic winter storm, and my family and I just happened to be there when it occurred. [...]

Tax Planning

Taxes

6 Last-Minute Strategies You Need to Know to Reduce Your 2020 Tax Bill

Will you need to do any last-minute shopping this holiday season? I do! If you need last-minute tax strategies, we [...]

Market Headlines

Financial Planning

Don’t Let Market Headlines Steal Your Joy This Holiday Season

One of the worst times to worry about market headlines is during the holiday season. Below are three ideas that [...]

Noise

Financial Planning

Can Tuning Out the Noise Impact Your Wealth?

Have you ever tried to have a phone conversation while someone (spouse, child, or stranger) was trying to get your [...]

Beat the Market

Financial Planning

How Easy is it to Beat the Market?

Trying to beat the market is kind of like trying to individually guess how many jellybeans are in a jar. [...]

Financial Planning

A Tale of Two Decades – Lessons for Long-Term Investors

Are you worried that a recession might be around the corner? Do the ups and downs of the market stress [...]

Happier Financial Life

Financial Planning

The Happiness Equation

Do you wonder if you’re missing out on opportunities to get higher returns for your investment portfolio? Do you feel [...]

Investment Portfolio

Financial Planning

Key Questions for the Long-Term Investor

Are you worried that your investment portfolio isn’t built as well as it could be? Do you wonder if you [...]

Portfolio

Financial Planning

Timing Isn’t Everything

Does trying to figure out the ups and downs of the market make your head hurt? Are you concerned about [...]

Investment

Financial Planning

The Randomness of Global Equity Returns

Wonder if you’re missing out on the next big investment opportunity? Wish your investment portfolio would feel more stable? Do [...]

Better Investment

Financial Planning

Pursuing a Better Investment Experience

Are you nervous about a potential downturn in the market? Are you wondering if there’s a better way to invest? [...]

Financial Planning

Cash Flow Killers, Part 3: The Silent Killer

Cash Flow Killer #3 – The Silent Killer How not to use a GPS device Within the last year, I [...]

Financial Planning

Cash Flow Killers, Part 2: I Hate Admitting When I’m Lost

I hate admitting when I’m lost. On June 13, 2014, six hardworking guys put our seventeen-foot canoes into the chilly [...]

Cash Flow Killers, Financial Planner

Financial Planning

Cash Flow Killers, Part 1: A Confession from a Financial Planner

“Where is our money going?? How is it possible that I’m a financial planner, I can make a good living, [...]

Retirement planning

Retirement

How to Phase into Retirement and Take It for a Test Drive

There are many reasons why people who could retire are hesitant to do so. Some people think they need to [...]

Minnesota Retirement Mindgame image

Retirement

The Retirement Mindgame

What kind of retirement do you think you’ll have? Qualitatively speaking, what if the success or failure of your retirement [...]

Minnesota Tax Help

Taxes

Tax Deductions Gone in 2018

Are the days of itemizing over? Not quite, but now that H.R. 1 (popularly called the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act) [...]

Roth IRA Help

Financial Planning

What is a Roth IRA?

A Roth IRA is a tax-advantaged investment vehicle for retirement savings, much like a 401(k) or a traditional IRA, with [...]

Retirement

A Retirement Gender Gap

What is the retirement outlook for the average fifty-something working woman? As a generalization, less sunny than that of a [...]

Estate Planning

Talking to Your Heirs About Your Estate Plan

Talking about “the end” is not the easiest thing to do, and this is one reason why some people never [...]