Most owner-operated businesses choose a retirement plan exactly once. It was just you on payroll, someone reasonably told you a SEP IRA or a Solo 401(k) was the simple answer, and they were right. Then you hired a second person, and a third. The plan is still doing exactly what
Employees at Dallas-Fort Worth’s biggest employers, including Caterpillar, Toyota Motor North America, Charles Schwab, Lockheed Martin, and Texas Instruments, often find that their compensation letter comes with an acronym or two that salary alone never had. RSU. NSO. ISO. ESPP. Four sets of letters, four different tax rulebooks, and one
If you have children under 18, you now have three tax-advantaged places to put money for them, and one of them didn’t exist a year ago. Trump Accounts opened for business on July 4, 2026. For children born between 2025 and 2028, the Treasury will put $1,000 into one —
For years, grandparents were often told to be careful about using a 529 plan to pay for a grandchild’s college education. The problem was not the 529 itself; it was how the FAFSA treated distributions from a grandparent-owned account. Under the old FAFSA rules, a grandparent could save diligently for
Health Savings Accounts can be incredibly valuable, especially for people who have spent years building a balance and are approaching retirement. But the rules around an HSA and Medicare create one particular trap that catches people off guard. It often affects successful business owners and executives who keep working past
Real estate can be one of the most effective ways for business owners and investors to build long-term wealth. You can collect income, benefit from appreciation, use leverage, and deduct depreciation along the way. The problem often shows up when it is time to sell. An investor may look at
Two Very Different Answers to the Same Question Back-to-school season has a way of making college feel closer, and September is a fitting month to think it through, because it is also when Texas opens enrollment for its prepaid tuition plan. Texas offers both kinds of 529 plans, and they
A lot of people around DFW work at AT&T, American Airlines, or Charles Schwab. And many of them get part of their pay in restricted stock units instead of cash. Between AT&T downtown, American’s campus in Fort Worth, and Schwab’s headquarters in Westlake, that’s tens of thousands of people around
If you married in Texas, or moved here and stayed, you live in a community property state — one of only nine. Most couples know the phrase. Far fewer know it changes who owns what, how much of it your will can direct, and what the survivor pays in tax
For years, $1 million represented the unofficial finish line for retirement. Save a million dollars, pay off the house, retire, and enjoy life. But after several years of higher home prices, property taxes, healthcare costs, and inflation, a million dollars does not feel as big as it once did. That