Peggy Haslach - Planning For Good

05/31/2026

Do you know the difference between a global mutual fund and an international mutual fund?

Investors seeking world investments can choose between global and international funds. What's the difference?

05/30/2026

When it comes to making a difference, which is better? Investing for impact or starting your own philanthropy?

This fun piece can help your clients explore the benefits of impact investing versus founding a philanthropy.

05/29/2026

This week was a big week for me! I started another trip around the sun and I received my certificate for completing the Daylight Certified Impact Philanthropy Advisor program. I am also thrilled to announce that I am the first Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. financial professional to receive this newly added IPA designation. And it is all just in time for Pride! 🌈

Philanthropic giving is a core part of my practice and I am so excited to have such a wonderful resource in Daylight and our incredible IPA community to collaborate with going forward. We call this Planning for Good, LLC.

05/29/2026

Attention Estate Executors: Do you know about the Alternate Valuation Date?

Executors can value the estate on the date of death, or on its six-month anniversary —the “Alternate Valuation Date.

05/25/2026

"When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." - Gravestone of Leonard Matlovich (1943–1988), a decorated Air Force sergeant who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Vietnam.

On Memorial Day, we say we remember. But this year, I want to ask, remember who, exactly?

In 2025, the Pentagon deleted tens of thousands of records, photos, articles, and memorial pages, honoring women, Black, and LGBTQ+ service members. The Tuskegee Airmen's training materials were pulled from Air Force recruit courses. Arlington National Cemetery removed tributes to Black and female veterans from its "Notable Graves" listings.

Public outrage forced some restorations. But the message was sent.

These weren't DEI programs. They were people.

Women who flew and died in WWII. Black pilots who fought fascism abroad while facing segregation at home. LGBTQ+ soldiers who served in silence and gave everything. Navajo Code Talkers whose language helped win a war.

Memorial Day exists because forgetting is easy. These men and women made it harder by serving anyway, even when their country didn't fully claim them.

This is why we do what we do at Planning for Good. Every fallen soldier whose story someone tried to delete deserves to be claimed, remembered, and honored. Let's do that today.

Photo credit: APK, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

05/25/2026

I just finished reading The Light of Days, the true story of young Jewish women who fought back against the N***s in the Warsaw ghetto.

As a member of the LGBTQ community and a financial planner who serves our community, I couldn't stop comparing what I was reading to what is happening now in our country. I need to talk about this because it is not an abstract thing. It is also not a red state thing, as we saw last week in Congress.

Two weeks ago, Juniper Blessing was murdered in Seattle. She was a 19-year-old transgender woman, a University of Washington sophomore, a gifted singer who wanted to study atmospheric science and save the world. She was found stabbed to death in the laundry room of her apartment building. She was 19 years old.

Her family said, "Juniper was simply the most amazing human being we have ever known. Highly intelligent, extremely talented, and deeply sensitive to the needs of others. Juniper's loss not only devastates us but diminishes the world."

At the same time, the Trump administration's own counterterrorism strategy formally labels being "radically pro-transgender" as a marker of violent extremism. Not a fringe idea. Not a tweet. This is an official federal document. This has been outlined very clearly in Project 2025.

Think about that. A 19-year-old trans woman is murdered in Seattle. And the federal government is working to label the community mourning her as the threat.

This is the playbook. I know it because I just read it in a book about 1930s Europe.

The Holocaust didn't begin with gas chambers. It began with propaganda. It began with laws. It began with the deliberate painting of a minority as dangerous, as a threat to children, to families, to the nation. It began with ordinary people accepting a simplified story about who was to blame.

I sit across from transgender clients regularly. I see the financial devastation that discrimination causes. Lost jobs. Lost housing. Loss of services that they have supported with their tax dollars, just like the rest of us. The impossible math of surviving in a country that has decided you are a problem to be solved. These are not abstractions. These are people I know.

Trans people are not a threat. They are 1.6% of the population. They are our family, our neighbors, our colleagues, and our students. Apparently, even in their own laundry rooms, they are not safe.

I am not saying we are living in N**i Germany. I am saying we are at the moment the women in The Light of Days kept warning people about. The moment before. The moment when laws were being written, when language was being weaponized, when ordinary people were deciding whether to pay attention or look away.

Juniper Blessing deserved a future. She deserved to study hurricanes. She deserved to grow old.

This Pride, I am asking you, please don't look away.

Get to know who trans people actually are. Listen to their stories. Ask yourself who benefits from your fear of them.

And remember Juniper.

05/24/2026

Health-care coverage (including Medicare) typically does not cover extended medical care.

It's important to make sure your retirement strategy anticipates health-care expenses.

05/23/2026

Extra payments on student loans can save you more than you might expect. See how accelerating your payoff affects your timeline and total interest paid.

See how extra payments toward your student loans could shorten your payoff timeline.

05/22/2026

If you're 50 or older, you're eligible to contribute more to your 401(k). See how those extra dollars could add up by the time you retire.

See how catch-up contributions after age 50 could significantly boost your retirement balance.

05/17/2026

Can group and private disability policies work together?

Loss of income from disability has the potential to cause financial hardship. Disability insurance can help.