Mission Street Wealth Archive

Multi-Generational Trusts: Protecting Wealth While Preserving Your Family’s Independence

I’ve had a version of this conversation more times than I can count. A couple sits across from me, and one of them says something like, “We built this. We want our kids to have it. But we don’t want it to ruin them.”…
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Healthcare Costs in Retirement: Planning for the Potentially Expensive Reality

When clients ask me what surprises retirees most in their first few years out of the workforce, healthcare costs are almost always near the top of the list. Not because the costs are hidden exactly, but because most working professionals never had to think…
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Donor-Advised Fund or Private Foundation? Choosing the Right Giving Vehicle for Your Family

There’s a moment I see happen with a lot of the families I work with, usually a few years after a business sale or once retirement is well underway. The financial plan is solid, the portfolio is diversified, and the conversation starts to shift….
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Summer Financial Checkup: Mid-Year Retirement Planning Moves to Make Now

By the time summer arrives, most of us have filed our taxes, exhaled, and moved on to warmer thoughts: vacations, longer days, maybe a little less attention paid to the financial plan than it got back in March. I understand the instinct. But mid-year…
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How Much Cash Should Retirees Keep on Hand? Building a Retirement Liquidity Strategy

Ask ten recently retired people how much cash they keep on hand, and you will get ten different answers, usually based on instinct rather than strategy. Some retirees keep barely anything liquid, worried that cash is “losing to inflation.” Others hold years of expenses…
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The Roth Conversion Sweet Spot: Why Your Early Retirement Years Are Golden

If you have recently retired or are planning to retire in the next few years, you may be sitting on one of the most powerful tax planning opportunities of your financial life, and most people never use it. I am talking about the window…
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Trump Accounts: What Grandparents Should Know About the New Retirement Savings Option for Kids

If you have been hearing about “Trump Accounts” lately and wondering whether they might be a good tool for your grandchildren, you are not alone. Clients have been asking me about these since the legislation passed, and it is a fair question. There is…
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Your 60s Financial Checklist: How to Retire Early, Confidently, and on Your Own Terms

Your 60s are not a countdown to retirement. They are the decade when everything you have built starts to come into focus, and the decisions you make now will shape what the next 20 or 30 years actually look like. In more than 35…
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Your Financial Fire Drill: Why Pasadena Retirees Should Prepare Before the Market Alarm Sounds

Most of us remember fire drills from elementary school. The alarm would sound, and without thinking too hard, we’d line up, walk calmly to the exit, and gather outside. No panic. No chaos. Just a practiced response to a stressful situation, because someone had…
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The Hidden Tax Time Bomb in Your RSU Grants: California Edition

When I sit down with tech professionals and engineers here in Pasadena, the conversation about Restricted Stock Units often starts the same way: “My RSUs are vesting, and I’m excited about the extra income.” Then I ask, “Do you understand how much tax you’ll…
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