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Hey friend,
We made it to Part 4 of our DIY Financial Plan series 🎉
And this final episode is all about optimization, aka the money-saving systems that can quietly save you tens of thousands of dollars over your lifetime.
In this episode, we cover 3 often-overlooked parts of a financial plan:
💸 Tax Strategy
📚 College Planning
📄 Estate Planning
Tax planning is not just for rich people or business owners.
For example, contributing to deductible accounts like:
a 401(k)
Traditional IRA
or HSA
can reduce your taxable income right now while helping you build wealth for the future.
We spend extra time talking about HSAs because they’re one of the most tax-advantaged accounts available. Contributions can lower your income taxes and payroll taxes while growing tax-free for medical expenses later.
If you’re already on a high-deductible healthcare plan, explore your HSA options. If you need more options, check out HSA For America. **
Then we get into college planning and why 529 accounts have become way more flexible than they used to be. Your kids don’t even need to go to college; up to $35,000 can be rolled over into a Roth IRA after the account has been open for at least 15 years.
Jen uses Backer** as a way for friends and family to contribute to her kids’ 529 instead of getting useless clothes and plastic clutter. 😂
Finally, we talk about estate planning, which sounds like “rich people stuff” until you realize it includes things literally everyone needs:
beneficiary designations
Guardianship for your kids
healthcare directives
power of attorney documents
One thing we mention in the episode, Ethos life insurance** includes access to a will alongside life insurance coverage, which can make getting started feel less overwhelming.
Bad news is good business. We never bought in.
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Most sources have stopped looking. The alarm is easier to sell.
The Daily Upside was created by Wall Street insiders for readers who crave real insight over recycled anxiety. Five minutes of global business and finance, before the noise sets the agenda — just the facts, context, and analysis your decisions need.
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The upsides are always there. We’ll find them before breakfast.
Remember, if you’ve been following along with this series while driving, walking, cleaning, or mentally taking notes you’ll forget later, we put together a free DIY Financial Planning Spreadsheet to help organize everything in one place.
And if this series helped you realize you’d rather work with someone who can help you build a personalized, values-based financial plan, we’ve got resources for that too.
You are an adult now. Which is both rude and expensive 😂
But having a financial plan makes it a whole lot less overwhelming.
Jen & Jill 💛
**Means this is a sponsored or affiliate section. We may earn a small fee or commission when you choose to try one of our sponsor or affiliate partners. But opinions are still 1000% our own.
