Onochie Financial Solutions

04/04/2026

My intro to my Sienna Texas Neighborhood:

Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself and share a photo I took.

My name is Dr. Philip Onochie. I am a financial advisor with PennMutual / HTK Financial Services. I am a graduate of Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (Class of 1994) and the University of Houston Bauer College of Business (2003). I have been an avid investor since 1994 and licensed as a life insurance specialist and a stock broker/investment advisor since 2016/2018.

I would love to be your resource on general questions about investments and retirement planning. I am not just a believer in FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), I am a follower of this principle as I retired from MD Anderson Cancer Center after having invested aggressively for the last 32 years. Let me help you figure out your wealth journey, or your retirement journey. Sometimes they can be merged successfully when you take a holistic look at how you are approaching the inevitable that you cannot, and should not have to work forever just to have a good retirement.

I can be reached at 832-594-7689 cell or email at [email protected].

Thank you

02/14/2026

The Super Bowl victory podium was where two outstanding people met. Maria Taylor was the first black woman to host the Super Bowl pre game show for the hosting network earlier that evening. At the end of the Super Bowl, she became the very first black woman to host the Super Bowl winner’s presentation. Maria Taylor was a standout basketball and Volleyball player from Centennial High School in Georgia, where her classmate receiving the Super Bowl cup was Mike McDonald. She worked her way to the top.

Mike McDonald, coach of the winning Seattle Seahawks team, is better known thank Maria Taylor. He had been the defensive coordinator under the previous coach of the Seahawks, Pete Carroll, for ten years prior to being elevated in the 2024 season to the head coach position. His excellence as a defensive tactician is well known in the league. He was bound to make it to the top. Hard work got her there.

When it comes to investments, I can tell you that a lot of people forget that it’s a journey that requires hard work as well. I often have clients that tell me their goal and when we go over the lofty goal, I find some of them are not willing to put in the work it takes to make it to the top. I stress a few principles - you must start paying yourself first. Before Uncle Sam. Before health insurance, Medicare or social security deductions. Before anything else. You must know your budget. One that allows you to have something extra set aside for tomorrow. One that focuses on your goals for a financially independent future.

You must be consistent. That means paying yourself with every single paycheck. Working towards your goals every week and every month. You must be able to be open to learning more every day. Finding and using the best ideas. You just know that time is money. There is no free lunch and you make your own destiny. What do you want for yourself five years, ten years from now? Are you ready to meet a personal health challenge? How about one that impacts your family one way or the other? If your income is not enough to fund your future financial goals l, are you willing to take a side gig on? What will you do if you know it is essential to forming, keeping and achieving your financial goals a decade from now? How about if you had more time, like 15, 20
Years?

If you have had visions of grandeur for your older age and you are struggling to organize yourself enough to focus on achieving it, I can help. Do not be afraid to reach and make a personal consult. Working with various clients this month alone, I can say one thing: you must think big and you must realize it is in your hands to achieve it. A client that asked what was the smallest contribution she can make monthly towards their goal I later found makes more than most people do on average. After working with this client, I am excited to say they finally understood what financial freedom means and what it takes to achieve it. They are well on their way. Reach out to me if you want to do a financial health check up and that could be the start of your journey towards creating a financial goal you can meet or exceed in your own timeline. Thank you!

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and NBC Sports host Maria Taylor found themselves standing together on the Super Bowl 60 stage Sunday night in Santa Clara, Calif., both at the peak of their respective professions.

12/13/2025

White Stallion Night - An All White Affair, at the NRG Center with Catina Risper and 4000 plus other special guests of the Black Heritage Committee of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

This Committee gave out $20,000 in scholarships to minority students across the various universities in Texas, and is poised to give out some more this year. This is the 32nd year that they are operating within the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

04/15/2024

When it comes to money. It does not matter what party one supports or does not support. A wise approach to personal finance does not change, be careful not to invest more than you can lose.

In the ‘80s, millions of investors almost went down with the ship of a very big public company. That company would be a shock to you as to how close it came to being wiped out. That company is now among the top performing corporations that are cranking out hundreds of billions of income year after year on a pretax basis, and among the top leaders in paying as little as possible in Texas, until the recent Climate change law that mandated a 15% minimum corporate tax structure and 1% exercise tax for stock buy backs by major corporations were enacted. That company that was almost wiped out is none other than Apple, before it brought back ex CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs.

Why did I out all of Apple’s almost forgotten history out there? To illustrate the need for diversification of assets. Those who were 50% or 75% or 100% invested in Apple for all their portfolio were at the precipice of losing it all before Jobs engineered a remarkable turnaround. The investors who sadly didn’t heed that warning of a meltdown when they hold a significant over stake in one position, like those employees who were millionaires on the basis of their holdings of Enron Stock, saw how fast they were reduced to paupers when the company experienced its implosion.

Today, there are millions of Americans who have lost a sizable percentage of their nest egg because they invested an oversized amount of their portfolio on Truth Social under the stock symbol DJT. The stock performance is showing the real value of a company with 1% of the usage seen in regular companies like X, formerly known as Twitter, or even corporations like Facebook. The valuations of Truth Social as a stock was wildly disproportionate to the actual financial metrics - a company that lost $48 million and had ad revenue generation of only $4 million, more like a Chick Filla restaurant in one location only. That kind of financial performance says that the stocks in Truth Social will find its true level of a low priced stock, and those who bought at levels above $50 will be left holding the bags for those who shorted the stock - bought with borrowed shares they sold at a high price in expectation that they would buy back the shares to repay their loaned shares at a much lower price.

In summary, the lesson for personal finance will be to leave investments to the experts and also to diversify your holdings. There is nothing wrong in buying a little bit of this and a little bit of that so that when one goes down the others have a chance to stay same or rise. Use of sector mutual funds achieves this diversification instantly as you still gain the growth in the sector, like technology stocks, while having experts who know the market better manage your risks for you and hedge your bets with their blend of stocks in the sector like Facebook, Tesla, X, Google, etc. The hope is that those who end up losing a lot of their overall investment can learn this lesson and pass it on to others. Poliitics and investments mix as well as oil and water. Keep them as separate as possible.

Trump Media shareholders have voiced doubt and fury over the company’s plunging price. Some said they had invested thousands to show Trump their faith and support.

04/11/2024

Repping my alma mater…Texas Southern University

✈️Exciting News for TSU Aviation! ✈️

We’re thrilled to announce that Texas Southern’s Aviation Science Management Pilot Concentration program has been ranked as the #2 HBCU Pilot program and is in the top 16% nationally, according to pilot-colleges.com!

🛩️This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of our students, faculty, and staff.

Join us in celebrating this milestone and our commitment to excellence in aviation education!

04/10/2024

Nearly 120 years ago, educational pioneer Anna Julia Cooper was pushed out of her job, through tactics all too familiar today.

04/06/2024

What is the difference between a pension and a 401k or 403b plan? This current news event is a good reminder of what there are standard requirements of companies from federal law under ERISA - the Employee Retirement and Investment Security Act.

Under the 401k and 403b sections of ERISA, corporate and government entities present set up a plan for employees to save funds that can be used for retirement and match some portion of that. These funds were a shadow of the previous pension plans that were replaced by the new funds.

Pension plans are defined benefit plans that pay a fixed amount of money to beneficiaries who attain the years of service necessary. Military personnel especially were cognizant of the service years required to obtain a lifelong federal pension: serve their 20 years and retire.

For these BP workers who sued because they realized late that the conversion of their pensions to a like account was deficient in funding. In other words, a pension promised to them ended up running easy short of what their expectations were.

What are your expectations for a retirement? Are you doing your part to carve an independent part to retirement? Do you have a plan for how you are going to take care of your finances in a future where you are not going to work on an everyday basis? Are you depending on social security funding for your retirement, or on some other version of an institutionally sponsored 401k or 403b plan? Have you started the path to owning your own financial future by being knowledgeable in personal finances?

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/bp-pensions-sohio-workers-court-ruling-19375930.php?utm_campaign=CMS+Sharing+Tools+%28Premium%29&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR26FWjFC_Yh1dZ9uY7-t-pNFgFQTzyQ9MuBhvGpgm0gYR2y7nGyvNTPKHw_aem_AYuD4pBqqOVuayi9AJ6tow0umsDjHHcQwhkO1twVd7kl0oFL7jvPT3XINJlkgVik6qs

Pension revisions applied to roughly 7,000 Standard Oil of Ohio workers after BP acquired the company in 1987.

02/23/2024

Did you take on a student loan and you are still struggling to pay? It’s time to look into the new SAvE Program that started last year September. Enrollment if qualified will do a whole lot to save you money, cut the interest applied to your loan and even qualify you for loan forgiveness after ten years of loan payments, for those who has had their loans for up to ten years now.

This week, $138 Billion was forgiven for almost 4 million loan accounts who had achieved the ten year mark. Verify if you qualify and enroll for massive savings to your loan account or a total forgiveness

Interest capitalization has haunted student loan borrowers for decades, causing balances to balloon. That could change with a new income-driven repayment plan.

01/13/2024

Almost two years ago to the date, the biggest news of the week was the controversial statement by the then CEO of Rolls Royce, the luxury car division owned now by BMW, that Covid deaths was the chief reason their company experienced a record 49% increase in sales in 2021. He had noted them that the specter of looming death made more people who were conservative spenders suddenly reassess their lives and decide to not take their wealth to the grave.

Or maybe the realization that they couldn’t get into heaven with their cash made them decide to enjoy life together he fullest while on earth. Nonetheless, Rolls Royce went on to have an even more record sales year in 2022 with 6021 vehicles sold worldwide. The pandemic had sated and people were no longer dying in bunches, but still the wealthy having faced death and survived, had seemed to have taken a note of that and decided to keep splurging. And again record sales this past year topped their 2022 mark, so it’s safe to say the wealthy are no longer worried about leaving it all for their progeny.

Is there any lesson in this for the rest of us who were not born with a silver spoon, or who pulled themselves into becoming wealthy entrepreneurs? Is there a balance between ostentatious spending and wealth accumulation for the children that will likely waste them after getting their hands on weld th that tool decades to build?

A key to a safe landing for most families lie in teaching themselves and their children financial education. How to balance the family account, how to set a budget and how to figure out where to cut so you can keep the light on in your home or prepare for the long term goals that seem unobtainable. A lot of families out there are struggling and the difference between the families that make it out of the deep financial holes and those that are stuck or drown in the quicksands of bad finances lie in knowing how to goal set, knowing how to use the laws of finance and knowing how to expand their pie.

You must leverage hard work with a sharp, opportunity taking business mindset. What hole do you see in services that you can plug? What basic need can you fill? On my recent visit home, I saw opportunities everywhere - need for power generation and retention, simpl things like power banks, opportunities to become a POS operator to save time for business owners who do not have time to spend three hours at the bank, opportunities to provide services like the new Nigerian Identification Number (NIN) similar to a US Social Security number, solar converter installation and sales, security camera installation and service, IT for companies small and large and various other business needs and basic everything requirements for families that will yield a profit.

What are you willing to do to make it big, medium or simply stay afloat? How willing are you to increase your financial knowledge? How willing are you to embrace the new economy of today in your neighborhood than stick to moribund economies of the past? This last visit, I converted my gas generator to natural gas. While it’s been a mixed bag of results, I saw the potential as a big business right away having used expensive diesel and regular petrol. Your potential is limitless in a changing economy and your ability to get ahead of the new demand determines your level of success.

Rolls-Royce sales skyrocketed 49% to a record high in 2021, despite the pandemic.

07/29/2023

Wanna be a pilot? TSU’s got a program for that!

TSU becomes the second HBCU with an in-house professional pilot program to be professionally accredited by the Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI). Widely considered the gold standard in the industry, TSU is one of 44 programs in the world to hold the coveted designation.

https://www.tsu.edu/news/2023/07/texas-southern-university-professional-pilot-program-earns-coveted-aviation-accreditation-board-international-accreditation

06/20/2023

This past week I had some finance thoughts on my mind as I drove to work. The topic was paying yourself first. I was working with a client who called me and said basically: I’ve finally got it. She looked at her paystub and saw how much the IRS took out of the check. Okay, technically the IRS doesn’t take ir out. But the law mandates employers of full time workers to remove the taxes for social security, Medicare and for income taxes on any income earned. She noted that she had always paid her bills around what she received and knows she will receive every pay period.

She now has an added budget - a 10% deduction to start providing some long term stability for her future. This has not come without some serious adjustment. This find that is now being invested for her is flexible. But she knows why she is doing it. I asked her recently what did she have to adjust in order to put down almost 10% of her take home income into her relatively new Indexed Universal Life (IUL) account. I also asked her how hard was it to make that sacrifice.

Her answer was interesting. She said it wasn’t a difficult choice she had to make because she knows what it does for her now, and what her account will do for her in the future. First of all, she is creating value in an account that accumulates money and also earns interest that is compounded year after year. She knows also it is flexible. When she gets a work bonus of $600 once a year, she used to take the $430 that she recieves, after taxes and other pretax deductions like her Teachers Retirement System pension fund deduction of 7% and whatnot, and put it straight into her IUL to build up the balance.

The idea that an account like an IUL is there and grows tax free like an Individual Retirement Account (IRÁ) is an idea that got her excited. The fact that she has access to her account, penalty free, unlike rhe case of an IRA where she cannot touch any of the funds unless she pays a 10% penalty, is also a big difference maker for her.

She doesn’t have to worry about getting to 59 and half years old before she can use her funds if she needs them. She can borrow the funds in her IRA and won’t need to pay it back or pay it back if she so wishes. She loves the flexibility she has with being able to add more funds or take out funds on loan and she loves that it also covers her in case she has a critical illness or chronic illness or even terminal illness. This is just one of the tools she has in her portfolio when added to the TRS retirement plan and her 403B that she had until she opened this.

To cap what she loves about the IUL account, she finds it’s the easiest way to multiply her yield for her dependents in case something happens to her. While the living benefits is a major draw and she can use her money while alive, being able to leave a sizable insurance benefit for her children and dependents when she passes on is a secondary source of contentment. This is just an account of one client who found a way to pay herself first. How are you paying yourself first?