When you’re ambitious, your mind keeps moving the finish line. Even when things are going well, you still hear the same thought: I should be doing more. You don’t always have the same energy.
A big context-dependent factor of your lifestyle is how, where, and when you spend money, and this can be influenced by whether or not you’re receiving a regularly scheduled paycheck. Studies show retirees are often overly frugal with their savings.
With back to school season well on its way, a clever shopper’s strategy might save your bank. Steal, staple, splurge.
Almost every major life decision has a smaller version you can try first. The experiment replaces imagination with information. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to tell you something you didn’t already know.
Upcoming Webinar
Earned Wealth
Outrunning the Surtax: Retirement Plan Strategies for High-Earning Physicians
Learn how cash balance plans, 401(k) profit sharing, and smart plan design can cut taxable income — keeping high earners under surtax thresholds and helping every physician save more pre-tax.
Register now →The world’s greatest productivity hack is to love what you do. But this might be the second-greatest productivity trick: when you’re stuck on something, don’t spend too much time trying to get unstuck. Instead, just do something else!
We’ve all heard that “Comparison is the thief of joy,” but what about taking it a step further—finding joy in celebrating the accomplishments of others? It’s a notion so far from our individualistic American ideal that we don’t even have an English word for it.
Even among people who exercise, long bouts of uninterrupted sitting are still associated with worse metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes. Fortunately, the solution doesn’t require upping your exercise time 10X. Instead, you can combat the ill effects of sitting by peppering your day with surprisingly small movement “snacks.”
Why do some developed countries successfully promote strong investment cultures while others struggle? And how does the US measure up?
Who actually wins the great wealth transfer? The headlines promise trillions changing hands. But age, race, geography, longevity and more shape who really benefits.
Nearly 150 unionized doctors at two Twin Cities hospitals went on strike, in what’s believed to be the first walkout by private sector hospital doctors in U.S. history. This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but came after three years of bargaining that went nowhere.
Upcoming Event
The $1 Million Line Your 401(k) Never Saw Coming
Dr. Addams, an orthopedic surgeon in Boston, maxes out her 401(k) every January and feels mildly smug about it. Then her group has a banner year, her income clears $1 million, and Massachusetts helps itself to an extra 4% on everything above the line. Her 401(k) barely dents it. (She’s a composite. The surtax is real.)
Maxing the 401(k) is a respectable habit, built for a world where federal brackets were the whole story. Massachusetts, Washington, and Maine now layer extra tax on income or gains above $1 million, and other statehouses are drafting copycat bills. When the threshold sits a few hundred thousand dollars below your partnership distribution, every pre-tax dollar you can legally park somewhere gets more valuable.
Can plan design keep you under the line?
Sometimes. A cash balance plan paired with 401(k) profit sharing can shelter far more than the employee deferral alone, and the ceiling rises with age. For a late-career partner, that pairing can decide whether you pay the surtax or slip just beneath it. Doctors nowhere near seven figures benefit too, since better design opens up pre-tax room at almost any income.
I’m co-hosting a free webinar with Nick Gizzarelli, CPFA, CBS, QPA, QKA, Senior Advisor and Retirement Plan Specialist at Earned. Nick will cover:
- Which states tax income above $1 million, and how those thresholds hit W-2 wages, practice income, and capital gains
- How much a cash balance and profit sharing combo can shelter at your income and age
- The plan design gaps quietly bleeding deferral room and tax savings
Outrunning the Surtax: Retirement Plan Strategies for High-Earning Physicians Tuesday, September 29 | 2:30 PM ET / 11:30 AM PT
Upcoming Webinar
Earned Wealth
Outrunning the Surtax: Retirement Plan Strategies for High-Earning Physicians
Learn how cash balance plans, 401(k) profit sharing, and smart plan design can cut taxable income — keeping high earners under surtax thresholds and helping every physician save more pre-tax.
Register now →Bring your plan documents and your toughest questions.
