Monvia Financial

Monvia Financial At Monvia Financial all of our advisors are CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® practitioners (CFP®), and we wouldn't have it any other

When life changes, waiting usually feels like the responsible move. For one kind of decision, it sometimes is not.When s...
08/03/2026

When life changes, waiting usually feels like the responsible move. For one kind of decision, it sometimes is not.

When something significant shifts, a job, a marriage, a household, the common instinct is to wait. Wait for the dust to settle. Wait for next year. For most decisions, that instinct is sound. Roth conversions are one of the places it sometimes is not, because the opportunity, when there is one, tends to be tied to a specific year rather than available on demand.

A transition year can create a temporary stretch where this year's rate sits below the years ahead. By the time next year arrives, the income picture may have moved back, the filing status may have changed, and the window may have quietly closed. This is why the guide focuses on the window itself rather than the decision. The window is the part that is time-bound. The decision can be made calmly, once it is recognized.

Waiting is usually the safe call. This is one of the few places it might not be, which is exactly why we put the guide together. You can access it in the comments below.

There is no notification that tells you a planning year has arrived. A few signals tend to be worth a second look, thoug...
07/31/2026

There is no notification that tells you a planning year has arrived. A few signals tend to be worth a second look, though.

➡️A meaningful change in income, in either direction
➡️A change in filing status, current or coming
➡️A liquidity event such as a sale, a settlement, or an inheritance
➡️A planned step back from work, or a planned return to it
➡️A year when the tax projection simply looks different from the ones before it

None of these is a recommendation on its own, and any one of them can turn out to mean nothing. Together, they tend to mark a year worth examining rather than assuming. These years rarely announce themselves while you are inside them. They are clearest in hindsight. The guide can help you recognize the difference while the year is still in front of you.

Most of these years are only obvious looking back. We built the guide to help you spot one while you are still in it. You can access it in the comments below.

A year of change rarely feels like a planning year. A career step back, a divorce, a business sale, the loss of a spouse...
07/27/2026

A year of change rarely feels like a planning year. A career step back, a divorce, a business sale, the loss of a spouse, the focus is usually on what is shifting, not on taxes.

What often goes unnoticed is that the same change can quietly open a tax planning window, and a window like that may not stay open for long. A temporary dip in income, a shift in filing status, a year that simply looks different from the ones around it. These are the years when a Roth conversion question sometimes surfaces.

The Transition Year Roth Conversion Framework is built to help you tell whether your year is one of them. It walks through the windows a transition can open, the questions worth asking first, and why this kind of decision usually belongs in a conversation rather than a spreadsheet.

A year of change is rarely the moment taxes come to mind. That is exactly the gap we built the guide to fill. You can access it in the comments below.

Some pauses are forced. Others you choose: a family year, a health year, a year to care for someone. Those chosen years ...
07/23/2026

Some pauses are forced. Others you choose: a family year, a health year, a year to care for someone. Those chosen years can carry more than people expect.

A planned pause is rarely a small decision, and it is almost never made for tax reasons. It should not be. But the income gap a chosen year creates can carry planning considerations worth understanding before the year starts, rather than after it is over. The same conditions that make a step back meaningful for your life, a temporary drop in earned income, can also change the comparison long-term tax decisions rest on.

Seeing that ahead of time does not change why you are taking the year. It can change how much of it you make use of. If a deliberate pause is somewhere on your horizon, it may be worth looking at the financial side before the year begins, while there is still room to plan around it.

A planned year off rarely includes a tax to-do list. That blind spot is exactly what we built the guide to cover. You can access it in the comments below.

A Roth conversion takes place in a single year. The part that matters plays out over the decades that follow.That gap, b...
07/20/2026

A Roth conversion takes place in a single year. The part that matters plays out over the decades that follow.

That gap, between a decision made in one year and a result that unfolds across decades, is what makes the question so easy to judge on the wrong timescale. It is tempting to treat it like this year’s tax return, a clean yes or no. In practice, it is closer to a decision about the shape of the years ahead, made with the information available today.
When a conversion fits, what it reshapes is rarely a single number. It can touch how retirement income is taxed, how much flexibility the plan carries later, and what is ultimately left for the people you intend to provide for. None of that is certain, which is exactly why the decision deserves more than a one-year view.

If you are weighing the long version of this question, the guide and an exploratory conversation are the place to look at your own situation.

It is easy to weigh this like a single tax year. We built the guide to help you see the decades it actually touches. You can access it in the comments below.

You can model almost every part of a Roth conversion. The part that actually decides it is usually not on the spreadshee...
07/16/2026

You can model almost every part of a Roth conversion. The part that actually decides it is usually not on the spreadsheet.

Brackets, timing, and time horizons are all quantifiable. They belong in the analysis, and they matter. But the considerations that tend to settle the question sit just outside the model. How you want to provide for your family, what you want to keep flexible, and what you want your money to ultimately do.

Those are values questions as much as tax questions, and they are the reason two people with nearly identical numbers can reasonably reach opposite answers. A conversion that looks ideal on paper can feel wrong because it ties up money you wanted free. One that looks marginal can make sense because it fits how you want to leave things. This is why we created a guide built around the questions, not just the answers.

The numbers only get you so far. We built the guide around the questions that actually decide it. You can access it in the comments below.

Most investors see the recent market correction as noise. Uncomfortable, but temporary.For a woman who is mid-divorce, r...
06/11/2026

Most investors see the recent market correction as noise. Uncomfortable, but temporary.

For a woman who is mid-divorce, recently left a role, or drawing on her portfolio for the first time, it is not noise. It is a live planning variable, one that intersects with decisions that already carry emotional weight.

The risk that matters most right now is one that rarely gets explained clearly: sequence-of-returns risk. When withdrawals begin — to cover living expenses, divide assets in a settlement, or replace lost income — a down market creates a structural problem. You are selling assets at depressed prices to meet real needs, which reduces the capital base available to recover when markets rebound. That lost base cannot be replaced by future gains. It is no longer there to compound.

The order losses occur in matters as much as the average return over time. And for women in transition, that order is happening right now, not in a hypothetical future.

There is also an opportunity inside this moment worth understanding before the year closes — one that only opens when income and market values drop at the same time.

In our latest Women's Wealth Mindset article, Pamela Jacobs, CFP® covers both sides: what this correction means structurally for women in transition, and where the planning window is right now.

Full article linked in the comments.

U.S. expats receive an automatic extension to file until June 15, but tax payments are still due on April 15.Most treat ...
06/08/2026

U.S. expats receive an automatic extension to file until June 15, but tax payments are still due on April 15.

Most treat June as the deadline to work toward. Those who achieve the best outcomes treat it differently.

April is for decisions: whether to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or Foreign Tax Credits, whether your state domicile is creating tax exposure you don’t realize, and whether your retirement contributions are even eligible this year.
June is for filing a return that reflects those decisions.

In the latest edition of The Expat Advantage, Michael B. Hansen breaks down how to use the spring filing window as a strategic advantage, not a postponement.

Full article linked in the comments below.

A divorce decree does not automatically remove a former spouse as the beneficiary on a retirement account.Most people do...
06/04/2026

A divorce decree does not automatically remove a former spouse as the beneficiary on a retirement account.

Most people do not know this. Retirement accounts — IRAs, 401(k)s, life insurance policies — pass directly to whoever is named on the beneficiary form, bypassing the will entirely. It does not matter what the divorce settlement says. It does not matter what your attorney intended. The form controls the asset.

The same blind spot applies to your durable power of attorney. If your former spouse is still named as the person legally authorized to make financial decisions on your behalf if you are incapacitated, that designation does not end when the marriage does. It ends when you update the document.

These two are the most urgent to address — but they are only two of six legal documents that require deliberate review after a major life change. The others involve who makes medical decisions for you, who manages your estate, who is named as guardian for your children, and whether your trust still reflects the family structure you have today.

In our latest Women's Wealth Mindset article, Pamela Jacobs, CFP® walks through all six, what each one controls, and exactly what is at stake if they are missed.

Link in bio

Every year, U.S. expats face a decision most domestic investors never encounter: whether to use the Foreign Earned Incom...
06/02/2026

Every year, U.S. expats face a decision most domestic investors never encounter: whether to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or the Foreign Tax Credit to reduce U.S. tax liability on foreign earnings.

These aren't interchangeable. And the wrong choice for your situation doesn't just cost you in taxes — it can eliminate your eligibility to contribute to an IRA or Roth IRA for that year entirely.

If you're in a low-tax country, the FEIE may be the right tool. If you're in a high-tax country, the Foreign Tax Credit often wins. If you're building toward retirement, the interaction between those two choices and your contribution eligibility matters more than most people realize.

The most effective approach is modeling both before you file — not after.

If you're not sure which strategy fits your situation, Michael B. Hansen breaks down the full decision framework in the latest edition of The Expat Advantage. Link in bio.

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