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Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  It's open enrollment season, and the temptation to click "same as last year" is real. But your employee benefits are a form of compensation, and small tweaks can add up to real money, even for high earners in tech and biotech. In this episode, Scott walks through the biggest choices on your enrollment form. He compares PPO and high-deductible health plans using a total cost lens, explains why the HSA's triple tax advantage makes it a powerful savings tool, and discusses when an FSA or dependent care account may be fit. He also covers 2026 and 2027 401(k) limits, how to decide between pre-tax and Roth contributions based on where your income is headed, the new Roth catch-up rule for higher earners, and how after-tax contributions with in-plan Roth conversions (the "mega backdoor Roth") can fit into your strategy. If you want to be intentional with your benefits instead of running on autopilot, this episode offers a clear, practical checklist before you hit submit. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Paying taxes is no one’s favorite activity, but did you know it is possible to significantly lower your tax liability in retirement? Sometimes all the way down to zero? In this episode, Scott and Nick break down how progressive tax brackets, capital gains, and standard deductions work together to create opportunities for tax-free income. They explore how combining standard deductions with the 0% capital gains bracket, and leveraging bonus deductions for those over age 65, can open up strategic windows for tax-free living or low-cost Roth conversions. They also discuss why building a flexible balance sheet today matters, how asset location across brokerage and 401(k) accounts impacts your options, and how managing your reported income can assist with pre-Medicare healthcare costs. If you want to keep more of what you earn and build flexibility into your future retirement plan, this episode provides a clear, practical guide to navigating your tax options. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Most savings accounts for kids sit in low-yield cash or come with restrictions on how the money can be used. With the rollout of the new "Trump account,” a tax-deferred savings vehicle for minors that allows parents, grandparents, employers, and friends to contribute a combined maximum of $5,000 annually. But is it worth jumping on right away? In this episode, Scott and Nick unpack everything you need to know about this new minor IRA. They walk through who is eligible for the $1,000 government seed money, how time and compounding can turn max contributions into an estimated $20 million by retirement, and the clever Roth conversion strategy that could make those millions completely tax-free. They explore where this new tool might fit into your overall financial order of operations and how grandparents and parents can use it as a mini generation-skipping wealth builder. Whether you're expecting a newborn or looking to jumpstart your teenager's financial future, this conversation breaks down the numbers and strategies so you can make the right move for your family. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Nobody wakes up eager to hand extra money over to the IRS, but what if taking a deliberate tax hit today could protect tens of thousands of dollars for your family later? In this episode, Scott and Nick unpack the real purpose behind Roth conversions: stripping away the jargon to look at taxes not as a yearly chore, but as a manageable challenge for you and your long-term goals. They compare two distinct retirement timelines: a 10-year runway during your core earning years versus a shorter 3-to-5-year pre-retirement window. Scott and Nick discuss how to approach tax bracket filling, why temporary income drops create prime conversion opportunities, and why optimizing for the lowest tax bill this year often costs you more over your lifetime. If you want to ensure your hard-earned money ends up with the people and causes you love, this episode offers a clear roadmap to navigate your tax options with confidence. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Most midyear reviews feel backward-looking: a scorecard designed to trigger judgment or guilt over what hasn't been accomplished since January. But what if checking in on your goals wasn't about grading your past, but renewing your direction for the future? In this episode, Scott and Nick break down why traditional "reviews" fall short and why viewing your goals through the lens of renewal changes everything. They discuss how to deal with unexpected life pivots, why sticking to outdated intentions holds you back, and how to prune your goals down to what actually brings you energy and fulfillment today. If you're feeling behind on your financial or personal intentions or if your life looks completely different than it did six months ago, this conversation offers a permission slip to let go of the shame, reset your focus, and align your money with the life you actually want to live right now. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Your investments are there and your retirement accounts are growing, but do you still feel a lingering anxiety about cash flow? In this episode, Scott and Nick dive into why traditional budgeting feels like a chore and why high earners often struggle with "lumpy" income like bonuses and RSUs. By shifting the conversation away from rigid, restrictive spreadsheets and toward automated cash flow systems, you can actually remove barriers from your daily financial life. Here’s what we often see: clients can feel that budgeting is about tracking every single penny or cutting your lifestyle to the bone. But it's actually about building an intentional framework, like the "Hub Account" system, that automatically funds your big life goals while freeing you up to spend what's left without apology. Scott and Nick explain how to run a simple annual expense audit, how to use watermarks to check your consumption, and how to stop letting excess cash sit stagnant and start working for you the way you want. If you are tired of checking your bank balance and feeling like budgeting is a chore, this episode will help you build a system that ensures you can allocate your funds in ways that give you more freedom, instead of less.   Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Your financial plan might be able to hit a specific retirement number, but can it handle two completely different timelines? In this episode, Scott and Nick explore a nuanced situation facing many couples: what happens when one spouse is completely ready to step away from work, while the other still finds energy, purpose, and identity in a career? Using real-world client scenarios, you can shift the conversation away from rigid spreadsheets and toward the human side of wealth. It’s not just about whether an early retirement is numerically possible, it’s about balancing individual dignity, addressing personal money stories, and determining how a couple makes major life decisions when they are looking at the exact same picture but seeing two different things. Scott and Nick explain how to pressure-test staggered retirement models, how to invest your non-financial assets like your time, energy, and talent. And how to ensure you are retiring to a purpose rather than just escaping into a void. If you and your partner aren't on the exact same page about when or how to exit the workforce, this episode is for you. It’s about building a strategy that supports two distinct versions of a great life, ensuring both of you feel like you're winning. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  There’s a specific kind of excitement that takes over the markets when a company promises to change the world. It starts with an article shared between colleagues, moves to a text message to your financial advisor, and ends with a very simple question: "How many shares can I buy?" Because when a company is talking about colonizing Mars, building out next-generation AI, and dominating satellite internet, it feels like an opportunity you can't afford to miss. In this episode, Scott and Nick peel back the exciting story of the SpaceX IPO to run a foundational financial "smell test" on the numbers. They explain why focusing entirely on a brilliant vision can force retail investors to buy in the wrong order, substituting hype for true valuation. They walk through the stark reality hidden in the newly opened private books: a business where Starlink is highly profitable, but everything else is aggressively burning cash, leading to a reported $5 billion net loss. They break down what it actually means when a company tries to go public at an unprecedented 94 times revenue and explain why buying into a company that requires 40% year-over-year growth for a decade just to break even transforms an investment into a very expensive lottery ticket. If you've been tempted by the buzz of a high-profile market debut, or if you want a reliable framework to cut through the noise of the next major tech listing, this episode is for you. Scott and Nick cover the exact questions you need to ask to separate exceptional companies from exceptional investments. Hype isn't a problem if you check the math first! Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell FinancialMoney can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial .

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  A layoff often feels like a sudden explosion, leaving a wake of disorientation and immediate worry about how to sustain your household. While the initial shock can feel paralyzing, the path to regaining control starts by allowing yourself to process the change before diving into the mechanics of your severance package. In this episode of Real Personal Finance, Scott and Nick walk through a live framework for navigating a sudden job loss, specifically within the evolving tech landscape. They discuss the critical first steps of decoding complex severance agreements and explore how to translate a static balance sheet into a tangible runway of months or years, effectively turning a forced exit into a deliberate summer sabbatical. If you are currently seeing restructuring at your company or simply want to bulletproof your financial plan while you still have W-2 income, this conversation is essential. It’s a grounded look at how to audit your "war chest" and turn a moment of career friction as a mechanism to find work that actually aligns with your mission. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Most people nearing retirement have heard of the famous "4% rule," but few actually understand how to apply it to a shifting financial landscape. It’s easy to look at a static portfolio balance and assume you're set, only to close your eyes to the real-world friction of pre-tax calculations, health insurance gaps, and compounding inflation. In this episode, Scott and Nick break down the framework for mapping out a realistic 10-year retirement runway. They break down a case study of a client balancing a multi-million-dollar portfolio and walk through the math of safe withdrawal rates without draining your security. They discuss the "smile" of retirement spending, the operational hazard of drawing entirely from pre-tax IRAs, and why setting flexible guardrails is the key to tuning out day-to-day market volatility. You don’t just want to focus on hitting a random number you read in an article. You want to understand what that number has to support and where the cash flow actually comes from. If you’ve been wondering how to prepare for shifts in retirement spending over time, you’ll want to tune in! The episode focuses on building a dynamic strategy that lets you live a fulfilled life today, without running into the danger zone tomorrow. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Most tech and biotech executives we know have too much of their net worth in one stock. They know they should do something about it, but they usually end up just closing the tab on their stock comp page. In this episode, Scott and Nick break down the framework for moving from a "home run" mindset to a "nest egg" reality. Using a real-world scenario of a client with over 30% concentration in one company, they walk through the math of de-risking without losing the upside. They discuss the "sequencing" of tax brackets, the psychological barrier of "break-even-itis," and why you should treat your RSUs exactly like a cash bonus.  It’s not just about selling shares; it’s about understanding your "enough number" and separating your vested security from your unvested potential.  If you’ve been watching your company stock climb and wondering if you're taking too much risk, this episode is for you. It’s about building a plan that protects the life you want to live, even if your company hits a 16-year plateau.  Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial or Swell Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  There's a tab a lot of tech professionals have open right now. It's from Fidelity or E-Trade, it shows how much company stock they're sitting on, and most of them close it without doing a thing. Because the moment you start thinking about selling, it gets complicated. In this episode, Scott and Nick break down what to actually do when a big chunk of your net worth is tied to your employer's stock, whether that's RSUs, ISOs, ESPPs, or some combination of all three. They walk through why concentration happens quietly and compounds fast, especially when you're getting promoted, the stock is climbing, and new grants keep coming in. And they explain why "just diversify" is technically correct advice that leaves out everything that actually matters. The real conversation is about sequencing. How to unwind a concentrated position across multiple years, in a tax aware way, without triggering a bill you didn't plan for. That means looking at your income year by year, understanding which shares to sell first, knowing how to stop feeding the position, and factoring in the unvested shares that don't show up on your balance sheet yet but still count. If more than 10 to 20% of your net worth is sitting in a single stock, and especially if you're within five to ten years of retirement, this episode is for you. Scott and Nick close with a clear framework for building a plan before, during, and after, and why the clients who act earlier always walk a little lighter. Concentration isn't the problem. Concentration without a plan is. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial or Swell Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Your plan might be able to handle market volatility, but it might not handle your income disappearing. In this episode, Scott breaks down the uncomfortable blind spot facing many high earners—what happens if your paycheck stops sooner than expected. Using a real-world scenario of someone with nearly $3M saved and a large amount of unvested RSUs, he walks through the question most people avoid: “If the job goes away in 3–5 years instead of 7-10, are we actually okay?” It’s actually a timeline problem, not just a market risk problem. Scott explains how to pressure-test an early exit scenario, separate RSU strategy from income dependency, and ask the bigger question most plans ignore: what is your career capital actually worth if your role changes? If a large portion of your wealth and income is tied to one company, this episode is for you. It’s about understanding the assumptions your plan is making—and making sure they hold up when it matters most. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  You did everything right. You maxed your 401(k) for decades, watched the balance grow, and felt good about where you were headed. Then someone showed you a tax projection for retirement and it was a lot bigger than you expected. In this episode, Scott walks through why a large, traditional 401(k) balance can quietly become a future tax trap. He breaks down a real world example of how required minimum distributions (RMDs), Social Security, and Medicare premiums can stack up in ways most people never saw coming and what a surviving spouse could face alone. But this isn't a story about regret. It's about having a window of time to act before the IRS starts making decisions for you. If 70 to 80% of your investable wealth sits in pre-tax accounts, this episode is for you. Scott walks through four practical levers: savings direction, Roth conversions, taxable bridge accounts, and asset location and closes with three concrete steps you can take right now to get clarity on where you actually stand. Your401(k) isn't the issue, having one that is overly concentrated without a plan is. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial  Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.

Curious about your retirement savings? Our How Much Do I Need To Retire? quiz gives you an idea of where you stand and a starting point to think about your long-term planning. —  Most people don’t actually want retirement, but they do want relief. Relief from the schedule. Relief from the pressure. Relief from feeling like they can’t step off the treadmill. But what if the question isn’t “When can I retire?” and it’s “What would I do if I knew I wasn’t trapped?” In this conversation, Scott and Nick explore the tensions so many professionals feel but almost never say out loud: the golden handcuffs, the benefits package, the identity wrapped up in a title. And underneath all of it, another question: do I actually need this job… or am I just afraid to look? Retirement doesn’t always have to mean stopping work. Sometimes it means choosing work, some others it’s testing something new, and every once in a while it means building enough cushion that you walk into Monday differently. If you’ve ever felt stuck in a role you’ve outgrown, this episode of Real Personal Finance might open a door you didn’t realize was already unlocked. Ready to learn more?  Scott Frank on LinkedIn Stone Steps Financial Nick Covyeau on LinkedInSwell Financial Leave us a question!  Money can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. When you’re able to understand the complexities, you can make better decisions to improve your daily life. Connect with us at Stone Steps Financial.