Trevor Hanson 
For decades, your budget had a built-in safety net: the next paycheck. Retirement changes that. Your income now comes from Social Security, maybe a pension, and the savings you spent a career building, and every dollar you spend is a dollar your portfolio has to replace. A retirement budget isn’t about restriction. It’s about knowing … Read more
Ask most people about their investment risk and you’ll get an answer about how they feel. “I don’t like watching my account drop.” “I can handle some ups and downs.” That’s a real and useful answer, but it’s only half the picture. Risk tolerance is how you feel about losses. Risk capacity is how much … Read more
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is advice everyone nods along to and almost nobody applies correctly. The people most likely to break the rule are often the most successful: executives paid in company stock, longtime employees with a 401(k) full of their employer’s shares, and founders whose wealth is tied up in … Read more
Everyone has met someone who claims they got out right before a downturn and back in right before the recovery. What you rarely hear about are the other nine times that same instinct got it wrong. The urge to get out gets loudest in the last few years before retirement, when a market drop feels … Read more
If August felt like a lot to keep up with, you weren’t imagining it. Trade tensions with Canada turned into new tariffs, the bond market wrestled with a gap between fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve, and pressure built again around Iran. Beneath the noise, earnings kept growing and Treasury yields moved lower. In this … Read more
There’s a particular kind of silence that shows up around estate planning. Parents don’t want to talk about it because it means talking about their own mortality. Adult children don’t bring it up because it feels like they’re asking about money, or worse, asking when. So the conversation just doesn’t happen, sometimes for decades, until … Read more
Ask someone why they haven’t written a will, and you’ll rarely hear “I don’t think it matters.” You’ll hear “I haven’t gotten to it yet.” It sits on the same shelf as the gym membership and the garage cleanout, a task with no deadline, so it never quite becomes urgent enough to finish. But if … Read more
July showed that loud headlines and steady fundamentals can show up in the same month. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran pushed energy prices higher, tariffs grabbed attention and the tech stocks that carried the market for over a year finally cooled. Beneath the noise, earnings kept growing and other sectors stepped up. In this … Read more
If you’re planning to retire in Utah, or you already have, it’s worth knowing exactly how the state treats your income. The short answer: Utah taxes most retirement income, including Social Security, at a single flat rate. The longer answer is better news. Credits can wipe out the state tax on Social Security for many … Read more
Health care planning is one of the few areas of life where unpredictability isn’t the exception but the expectation. Costs shift, coverage evolves and important decisions often arrive during already stressful moments. Health Savings Accounts are usually introduced in pieces, through a benefits meeting or a passing recommendation, so many people treat them as a … Read more