Emerald Retirement Planning Group

10/08/2026

HEADLINE: 🚀 SpaceX wants $40B to buy Nvidia chips.

The Elon Musk-led company has been in talks with banks and asset managers to secure the funds, sources told news outlets. It’s looking to get $10 billion in bank loans and $30 billion in investment-grade debt, per the Financial Times. According to Bloomberg, that would make it one of the biggest debt financings yet in the AI race, as Big Tech continues to adopt a “you’ve got to spend money to make money” mentality. The deal is still in early stages and is not expected to close until next year. Musk recently said that xAI’s Colossus 2 data center may ​more than double the number of Nvidia chips it ​uses by the end of this year.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-06/spacex-seeking-to-raise-40-billion-to-buy-nvidia-chips-ft-says

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COMMENTARY: This might be the beginning of the end of corporate liquidity in the United States. It is suddenly commonplace to borrow tons of money, not for infrastructure or M&A, but for SUPPLIES. Never before would this have been tolerated by the board or major stockholders of a publicly traded company. But since those involved with SpaceX are already used to it losing money (not net profit in any year so far), this is just par for the course for them... but that doesn't make it normal, and it doesn't make it wise.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks with banks and investors to raise $40 billion to buy chips from Nvidia Corp., people familiar with the matter said, in what would be among the biggest-ever debt financings for the AI buildout.

09/15/2026

Congratulations to everyone who braved the weather and crossed the finish line in the South Nyack 10-Miler this past Sunday—especially Matthew’s wife, Gail!
Emerald Retirement was proud to sponsor a water stop, although Mother Nature kept everyone well supplied with water throughout the race!

08/13/2026

Do you often receive "gifts" from random business people in the neighborhood of $4 million, $5 million, maybe $6 million? Yeah, us too, but when we do, we make sure to tell our boss about it!

This type of stuff is absurd and it makes you question the legitimacy of any rankings organization out there, Consumer Reports (a not-for-profit) potentially excluded.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/business/forbes-editor-fired.html

Randall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, received the money from the founder of Shook Research, which has worked with Forbes on content about wealth advisers.

08/08/2026

I spent about 4/5 of this week in Salt Lake City for Cetera's Connect2Peers conference.

The trip got off to a pretty good start when Enterprise upgraded me to a soft-top Mustang. That turned out to be useful. It was in the high 90s all week, but with almost no humidity.

I also decided that if I was flying all the way to Utah, I was going to make better use of the travel days than simply going back and forth between the airport and the hotel.

So when I landed Monday morning, I went directly from SLCIA to Walmart, bought hydration supplies, and drove straight into Little Cottonwood Canyon.

From there, I did a 7.5-mile mountain trail ruck with a 30-pound pack on the Red Pine Trail before heading back into the city for the conference.

Then it was three days of Connect2Peers.

The conference itself was worthwhile and, as usual, some of the best ideas came from talking with other advisors between sessions, over meals, and at the evening events.

I came back with a number of things I want us to work on at Emerald, particularly around improving the way we serve more complicated client situations, doing an even better job coordinating tax and estate planning, making better use of the specialists and resources available within the Cetera infrastructure, and continuing to improve the way our team works together and communicates with clients.

There were also several excellent sessions on serving multigenerational families, tax planning, practice management, and leadership—plenty that I'll be going back through over the next few weeks.

Wednesday night wrapped up with the closing event at the Gallivan Center, featuring Don Felder and Mike DelGuidice. Not a bad way to end the conference.

Thursday morning, I checked out of the hotel and did basically the reverse of Monday. I drove back into the mountains and completed another 30-pound trail ruck, this time to Lake Blanche. It was only 6.4 miles, but considerably steeper. Take a look at my uphill pace!

The only flaw in this plan was that I finished the hike filthy—and definitely not ready to sit next to another human being on an airplane for five hours.

So I drove straight from the trail to the airport, went through security, walked into the Delta Lounge, and put my name on the shower list.

They called me about 15 minutes before boarding.

Just enough time.

So that was the trip: three days of business meetings and conference sessions, two mountain rucks with some remarkable scenery, a convertible I didn't order, a lot of very good conversations, and one extremely well-timed airport shower.

Not a bad four days in Utah.

07/09/2026

Local to Stony Point? Don't miss it!

The America 250 Carnival is happening THIS WEEKEND at Patriot Hills, celebrating America's 250th birthday!

07/07/2026

Calling all MEN (fathers, brothers, sons, spouses, coworkers) to support your WOMEN runners and walkers on Sunday, July 12th at the Women's Distance Festival at Rockland Lake!

https://runsignup.com/.../WomensDistanceFestival5KRunWalk

07/04/2026

06/17/2026

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Today we're celebrating our founder, Matthew Clement — and the steady, optimistic spirit he's brought to this work for more than two decades.

Anyone who's sat across the table from Matthew knows the feeling of leaving calmer and more confident than when they arrived. That's no accident. It comes from his belief that good planning isn't about predicting what's next — it's about being prepared for it and staying focused on what you can control.

Matthew, thank you for the calm, clarity, and confidence you bring to our clients, our team, and this work every day. Your leadership continues to shape the culture and values that make our firm special.

Here's to celebrating you today and to many more years of making a difference in the lives of everyone around you.

06/08/2026

This Sunday, Matthew, Melissa, and Matthew's wife, Gail, took part in the 21st Annual North Rockland Community 5K Run/Walk, benefiting three children in the community with medical needs.

Congratulations to all three for finishing in the top four of their respective age groups (and no, we're not revealing who's in which age group)!

06/01/2026

AI Will Create More Jobs, Not Fewer

https://www.apollo.com/wealth/the-daily-spark/ai-will-create-more-jobs-not-fewer