September 2021 Greetings!!! It's official: the season of new beginnings is here (September is the new January.) For me, autumn has a quality of a clean slate laden with possibility. Perhaps it's the remnants of that "back to school" mentality when my kids were at school. It feels like I am primed to kick-start positive change. What about you? Many of us spend lives chasing a laundry list of goals with our time spread thinly across each one. In his book Drive, Daniel Pink challenges readers to regain focus and clarify their purpose. Each day ask yourself: am I closer to my goals than I was the day before? Every month I strive to give you a science-based perspective from our community of thought leaders to help soak up a little financial knowledge and advance the holistic plan designed around you and your life. How are you planning for the challenges ahead so you stay on track? Hit reply and tell me how you prepare for the obstacles threatening to derail your goals as we enter the last quarter of 2021. Dream. Plan. Prosper.

DOES PLANNING END AT RETIREMENT? You’ve diligently accumulated the wealth you need to retire, winning the game and earning satisfaction for completing a solid plan. Other than tee times and travel, there isn’t much planning left, is there? Of course there is. You’ve now entered your distribution phase, and that’s a paradigm shift. Read on for prudent planning strategies to optimally manage this life and financial transition. Read the full article.

FINANCIAL ALIGNMENT FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY In preparing the next generation to manage money, it’s not how much you know but what you model and share that matters most. Learn some methods for giving children or grandchildren the tools they need to successfully navigate their finances, communicate their values through their decisions, and foster a positive relationship with money. Read the full article.

GIFTING MONEY? DEVELOP A PLAN If you are thinking about sharing money (or other assets) during your lifetime with family and heirs but questions linger about whether you should do so and with whom, it’s time to start developing a gifting plan. Read on to begin getting acquainted with some tax implications to consider, from gift and estate tax rules to timing around gifts of real estate or securities. Read the full article.

HOW TO AVOID FOOLISH INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR We all are prone to what feels like a laundry list of less-than-ideal investment behaviors: confirmation bias, framing issues, overconfidence. Learn how failing to acknowledge that we sometimes want more than money from our investments – and then not accommodating that tendency in the way we design and protect our financial plans – can lead to costly mistakes. Read the full article.

SECURE ACT 2.0 AND STUDENT LOANS What if you could simultaneously pay off your student loans and save for retirement? Enter the SECURE Act 2.0. While this bill has yet to become law, it’s worth a preliminary look at some of its provisions and starting a conversation about the role that student loan repayment and matching employer retirement plan contributions play in your financial future. Read the full article.

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