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Didion Wealth Management We help families and individuals 45+ answers questions like, “Do I have enough to retire?” and “Will I run out of money?” Member FINRA/SIPC.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial (LPL), a registered investment advisor and broker-dealer. www.finra.com www.sipc.org

The financial professionals associated with LPL Financial may discuss and/or transact business only with residents of the states in which they are properly registered or licensed. No offers may be made or accepted from any resident of any other state. Third party posts found on this profile do not reflect the views of LPL Financial and have not been reviewed by LPL Financial as to accuracy or completeness.

Net Worth of $205k, am I screwed?Stop comparing yourself to others, it really doesn't matter.I see it all the time.Peopl...
10/17/2026

Net Worth of $205k, am I screwed?

Stop comparing yourself to others, it really doesn't matter.

I see it all the time.

People look at:

Their 401k balance
Their IRAs
Their brokerage accounts
Their debt balance
Their Net Worth

And they'll ask me,
"Am I screwed?"
"What do others have in my situation?"
"I think I am behind."

All these questions are the wrong question to ask because they are rooted in comparing yourself to other people.

And the truth is it doesn't matter what others are doing.
It doesn't matter what other people's net worth is.
It doesn't matter what their 401k is worth.

What matters is where you are relative to what YOU want for your life.

To be able to answer a question like "Are you behind?" takes knowing things about what you want in your life.

"When do you want to retire?"
"How much do you want to spend?"
"Where do you want to live?"

Once you can answer those then you'll know if you are on track for YOUR goals or not.

And that's what matter.

So stop comparing yourself to other people.

Focus on your path, your goals and where you are relative to that.

10/16/2026

Your IRA has the same bankruptcy protection as your 401k.

Many people don't know this but when you rollover your old 401k into a new rollover IRA, the rollover IRA has the same unlimited bankruptcy protection as your 401k.

Some people don't want to rollover their old 401k into an IRA simply because they think that they'll lose some of that protection.

But you don't.

401k to rollover IRA still retains this protection.

But something that the rollover IRA gives you over the 401k?

→ A much larger universe of investment options to choose from.

Inside the 401k you can only invest in the available options within the plan.

But in a IRA you typically can invest in (almost) anything.

Stocks
Bonds
Mutual Funds
ETFs
Structured Notes
Alternatives
CDs
Options

The possibilities inside your IRA are much more.

10/15/2026

Hot take:
Rental income isn't really "passive income".

It's only passive because that's what the IRS classifies it as.

Which is important to know because you can only (most of the time) offset passive losses with passive income and not other income like your W2 job.

So if you have a loss from a rental property for tax purposes you most likely can't use it to lower your income from your job.

But in a practical sense rental income isn't passive at all

Rental properties, especially when you're getting started, require an enormous amount of work up front.

And sometimes the work required to maintain the property continues after you have started it.

You may have to do some renovating to the property, deal with finding tenants and then managing tenants.

You'll likely have to deal with brokers, lenders and attorneys as well.

In real life, rentals can be very active income.

So what's actually passive?

Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs.

These require way less of your time, with arguably much less risk (depending on how you look at it).

10/14/2026

One of the worst parts of being a business owner is that it all falls on you.

Doesn't matter what industry it is.

If something goes wrong in the course of doing business, either with a customer/client or not, it's all on you to fix it.

It's not on your team
It's not on your customers

It's on you.

As a business owner things are going happen that throw a wrench in your system or your day.

Things won't always go according to plan.

It could be an employee that calls in and leaves you hanging.

It could be a supplier that doesn't come through on time.

It could be something that comes up in your own life.

No matter what it is you have to deal with it and still make sure things gets done that need to get done to keep the business running and the clients happy.

You can't control all the things that can go wrong but you can control how you respond to them.

Some people are ok with this level of responsibility and they tend to have very successful businesses.

10/13/2026

Roth or traditional, it's not as simple as what your marginal tax bracket is. Here's how I look at it.

With traditional you're deferring tax on your income today into the future.

You know what the rates are today but you're deferring so you're not paying tax at these rates.

You don't know what rates are going to be in the future

So when you defer you are deferring into the unknown.

It's somewhat of a gamble if you're being honest.

Sure rates can be lower.

But they could be higher.

Or they could even be the same.

With Roth you pay taxes now at known rates and then you're done (as long as you leave the money in there for at least 5 years and until age 59.5)

But if you know you can defer now at a higher rate and truly withdrawal at a lower rate that allows you to pay less taxes then it makes sense to do the traditional.

But just deferring at a higher rate and withdrawing at a lower rate doesn't always end up in lower lifetime taxes.

Because there are usually earnings on your what you defer into pre tax (your money is invested), and sometimes significant earnings and those earnings are also taxed at whatever rate you end up withdrawing at.

Significant earnings sometimes cause the overall tax impact to be higher than you expect.

Couple that with other taxes in retirement like the NIIT, IRMAA and other income sources like Social Security, pensions, rentals, dividends, interest, etc. your taxes and tax rate in retirement can be higher than you thought.

All that being said both the Roth and traditional have its place.

And deciding one to do depends on your situation, your philosophy, your goals, etc.

And it is more involved than what your marginal tax rate is.

10/04/2026

You're a business owner and you've already got a 401k but want to defer more taxes. Here's what you can do...

𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻

You can have both a 401k and a cash balance plan if it makes sense.

A 401k is what the IRS calls a defined contribution plan.

It has its own rules and contribution limits.

A cash balance plan is a defined benefit plan.

It has it's own rules and contributions separate from the defined contribution plan.

So a cash balance plan will potentially allow you to defer more of your income in addition to what you are already putting into a 401k.

There are some caveats that you need to be aware of with the cash balance plan.

→ You need an actuary

An actuary is a third party that will help determine what your contrintions will need to be and to help ypur plan stay compliant.

→ You need to commit to the plan for at least a few years.

You can't make a contribution for 1 year and then change your mind and stop.

→ The contributions tend to be larger than 401k contributions.

This is good when you are trying to defer more of your income to reduce your taxes right now, but it can be problematic if your cash flow/revenue changes making it difficult to make the needed contributions.

If you're a business owner and are looking for ways to reduce your income for 2026 you still have time to consider a cash balance plan.

So if you want to learn more about it and how it may benefit you and your business now is the time.

10/03/2026

I've seen people make $500k per year and it's still not enough.

I've seen people making $500k per year not have adime to their name.

Here's the brutal truth...

Just having a high income doesn't mean you automatically are financially stable and hitting your financial goals.

A high income is a great advantage.

It can definitely make things easier.

But it doesn't translate to success unless you're intentional with your money.

This same rule applies if you're making $100k per year.

You need to be intentional.

You need to have a plan for taking some of your income and saving it and investing it.

You can't just spend it all.

And I've seen that a lot.

$500k of income comes in and $495k worth of expenses goes out, sometimes more.

Nothing saved
Nothing invested
No ground gained

One of the quickest ways to start saving is to save in your company 401k or some sort of retirement plan.

Most of the time it's automatic so that's what makes it a quick win and a good start.

But you should take a step further and invest outside your company's 401k or retirement plan.

Something like a Roth IRA or brokerage account.

If you're intentional with these it can really make a difference in growing wealth and building some assets.

10/02/2026

Pre-retiree had $2 million in cash and didn’t want to invest any of it.

They were going into a new phase of life.

They had worked for 30 plus years and were excited for what lied ahead in retirement.

But they were also anxious.

They had worked for 30 plus years and were used to a steady paycheck

Now that was gone and they had to live off of their savings and create their own paycheck.

They were so nervous that they were paralyzed with inaction.

They had $2,000,000 in the bank but had no idea how that money was to serve them in retirement.

This is more common than you think.

→ No investment plan
→ No retirement plan
→ No income plan

They didn't even know how long that $2,000,000 would last or how much income it could give them.

And they didn't care.

They thought they were playing it safe leaving that $2,000,000 as cash in the bank.

And on the surface it does look safe.

The $2,000,000 will be the same on every month's bank statement.

And that's the problem.

That $2,000,000 isn't growing, it isn't generated income, it isn't doing anything.

Taxes and inflation will slowly erode that money over time.

Like moving water to a rock.

Playing it safe usually isn't "playing it safe".

When you go into retirement it's a big transition.

What you need to do is have some sort of idea of how much income you'll need/want, where it where come from, and how to invest your money (both your retirement accounts and any excess cash).

Don't let your emotions paralyze you to do nothing.

Because in this case doing nothing causes more harm than good.

10/01/2026

Your brokerage account can really create a lot of taxes for yourself if you're not careful.

The brokerage account is taxable so the investments inside your account can create additional taxes for you.

And different investments create different tax situations.

→ Bonds can create ordinary taxable income taxed at ordinary income rates.

→ Stocks can create dividends that are taxed either as ordinary income or as qualified dividends which are taxed at different rates.

→ Your stocks, mutual funds and ETFs that you've held years can create large unrealized gains that make it difficult to sell them if you ever need to because selling them would create a large tax bill.

So when you invest in a brokerage account you want to keep taxes in mind along with what type of investments you will you invest in.

There 2 simple ways to keep your taxes in check.

1️⃣ Invest in tax efficient investments that will minimize your taxes inside the account.

Investments like municipal bonds and ETFs can help minimize your taxes inside a brokerage.

2️⃣ Rebalance your account periodically

This is a simple way to sell high with investments that have gone up in value and then reinvest the proceeds in an investment that has gone down in value or stayed flat (buy low).

This will smooth out any realized gains along the way and make the gains more manageable over time.

The brokerage account is an excellent account to have, just make sure you have a plan for how to manage taxes.

09/30/2026

"I give to my church every year, so I get a tax deduction for it."

I hear this a lot.

For a lot of people, that hasn't actually been true.

Many families take the standard deduction ($32,200 for married couples in 2026).

And if you take the standard deduction, your giving hasn't gotten you anything extra on your taxes.

That changes in 2026.

➡️ If you don't itemize

Starting this year, you can deduct up to $1,000 of cash gifts to qualifying charities.

$2,000 if you're married filing jointly.

That's on top of the standard deduction.

Cash gifts only, and keep your bank records or receipts.

➡️ If you do itemize

There's a new floor.

Only the part of your giving above 0.5% of your AGI counts.

Say your AGI is $200k.

0.5% of that is $1,000.

You give $6,000.

Only $5,000 is deductible.

➡️ Bunching can help

Same $200k AGI.

Instead of giving $6,000 this year and $6,000 next year...

You give $12,000 in one year (a donor-advised fund is one way to do it).

Now you only hit the $1,000 floor once instead of twice.

That's $11,000 deductible instead of $10,000 over the two years (assuming you itemize either way and your income stays the same).

"God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7

The tax code is a little pickier. 😂

Know which camp you're in, because gifts have to be made by December 31st to count for 2026.

Address

2139 Chuckwagon Road Suite 205
Colorado Springs, CO
80919

Telephone

+17194450337

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