Insights
When people say "I lost money in the stock market,"
What they usually mean is…
→ They lost money in individual stocks
→ They sold when their investments went down in value
The stock market as a whole has always recovered. If you’ve owned a diversified portfolio, you’ve seen downturns—but history shows it’s bounced back every time.
That doesn’t guarantee it will always recover, but there’s a big difference between betting on a handful of stocks and owning the entire market.
Diversification isn’t exciting—but neither is watching one bad investment or bad decision wreck your plan.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
While diversification can help reduce market risk, it does not eliminate it. Diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
Could you afford a 90% pay cut?
I’ve met sales professionals and people with variable comp (bonuses, RSUs, etc.) who assumed their work disability insurance had them covered—until we dug deeper and found out:
❌ Their policy only covered base salary
❌ Commissions, bonuses, and stock comp? Not covered
❌ If they couldn't work, they could be left with as little as 10% of their actual income.
Most people assume they’re covered, but long-term disability insurance isn’t as simple as “I have it” or “I don’t.”
Don’t assume. Ask your HR department.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
If there aren’t a few ticker symbols in your portfolio that bore you or make you question why you own them…
You might not be diversified enough.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
While diversification can help reduce market risk, it does not eliminate it. Diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
"I just need to roll my old 401(k) into my new one, right?"
Not necessarily.
A client recently planned to roll her old 401(k) into her new one—until we talked through her and her husband's goal of buying a home. We took a different approach 👇
✅ Roth 401(k) → Roth IRA (Invested Aggressively)
→ More liquid than a Roth 401(k).
→ Contributions can be withdrawn anytime, penalty- and tax-free.
✅ Pre-tax 401(k) → Traditional IRA (Kept in cash for flexibility)
→ Her company match was pre-tax, even though she contributed to Roth.
→ This keeps the $10K first-time homebuyer exception available (penalty-free, but still taxable).
→ If they don’t use it for the home, we’ll convert to Roth and invest for long-term growth.
Key takeaways:
1️⃣ Just because you can roll over a 401(k) doesn’t mean you should.
2️⃣ HR teams mean well, but if they don’t know your full picture, their advice can cost you.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
There may be benefits to leaving your account in your employer plan, if allowed. You will continue to benefit from tax deferral, there may be investment options unique to your plan, fees and expenses may be lower, plan assets have unlimited protection from creditors under Federal law, there is a possibility for loans, and distributions are penalty free if you terminate service at age 55+. Consult your tax professional prior to requesting a rollover from your employer plan.
How we helped a client avoid triggering taxes on their capital gains this year 👇
We recently worked with a client who had completed a small Roth conversion but kept their taxable income low enough to ensure their long-term capital gains stayed in the 0% tax bracket (They've been selling shares in their brokerage account to cover living expenses).
Then life threw a curveball—they suddenly needed an extra $10,000 from their investments. At first, they thought about taking the money from their IRA.
Here’s the issue...pulling $10,000 from the IRA would have bumped their taxable income enough to push over $10,000 of their long-term capital gains from a 0% tax rate to 15%.
After taking a closer look, we found a better option.
It turns out they had a life insurance policy with enough cash value to cover their cash need. We suggested taking a short-term loan against the policy in December and just paying it back in January.
Here’s why:
✅ They avoided increasing their taxable income, which kept their long-term capital gains at 0%.
✅ They only pay one month of interest on the loan & the policy’s cash value continues to grow while the loan is outstanding, reducing the "net cost" of borrowing.
✅ They can repay it next year when there’s more room in their tax bracket.
✅ Withdrawing from their Roth IRA would also be tax-free, but it would have defeated the purpose of doing the Roth conversion in the first place.
When you're implementing tax strategies such as Roth Conversions or tax-gain harvesting, make sure you have a plan for liquidity if the unknown happens!
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Thrivent and its financial advisors and professionals do not provide legal, accounting, or tax advice. Consult your attorney or tax professional. See thrivent.com/social for important disclosures.
"We've got a $10k surgery coming up and $50k in our HSA...Should we just take money out of the HSA?"
Our recommendation: Use cash to pay for the surgery. Here’s why 👇
→ Liquidity: They had enough liquidity between their emergency fund and brokerage accounts to pay out of pocket.
→ Growth Opportunity: They could invest the funds within their HSA and let them grow tax-free.
→ Flexibility: By saving receipts for the $10k expense, they now have the option to withdraw $10k at any time in the future—tax-free—for anything (vehicles, education, emergencies, etc.).
→ Long-Term Benefits: They can use the growth from the $10k investment to pay for future medical expenses and Medicare premiums tax-free.
Bottom Line:
✅ If you have the means, it’s often advantageous to preserve your HSA funds for future growth.
❌ If you’re distributing from assets or lack a full emergency fund, using your HSA may be the better strategy.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Roth Conversions: It’s not just about tax rates now vs. tax rates later.
t’s about your entire financial plan.
Here are some Roth Conversion questions we've had clients ask in the last month 👇
✅ Tax brackets
↳ "Do I have room to do more Roth Conversions?"
🏠 Capital Gains
↳ "Should I use these low brackets to realize capital gains at a 0% rate or convert to Roth?"
💵 Liquidity
↳ "Should we withhold taxes from the balance or use our cash?"
🗳️ Politics
↳ "Given the election results, do we still need to do Roth Conversions?"
👨👩👧👦 Inheritance
↳ "Should I distribute from my inherited IRA or convert to Roth?"
❌ Required Minimum Distributions (RMD)
↳ "Can I convert my RMD to Roth?" (Spoiler: RMDs must be withdrawn before you can do a Roth Conversion.)
📈 Asset Allocation/Location
↳ "Why does my Roth IRA have more stocks?"
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
A lot of people have heard of how powerful Roth Conversions can be.
The tax savings on a Roth Conversion strategy can be six or even seven figures for some people.
But there's a difference in just being aware of of the concept and executing a Roth Conversion Strategy.
Here's what a Roth Conversion Strategy entails 👇
☕ Tax Brackets
↳ Deciding which tax bracket to strategically "fill up."
👨💻 Calculating Room
↳ Using tax planning software to precisely calculate "room" within the desired tax bracket for conversion.
🏥 Medicare Impact
↳ Understanding and navigating the impact on Medicare premiums if over 65.
💸 Pay the taxes
↳ Identifying sources of liquidity to cover the taxes out of pocket.
🚫 Offsetting the taxes
↳ Finding credits & deductions strategies to offset tax burden of Roth Conversions.
🪣 How much is too much?
↳ Determining the optimal balance to leave in the pre-tax bucket.
📉 Market considerations
↳ Capitalizing on market drawdowns by accelerating conversions at opportune times.
🏛️ Tax Law Considerations
↳ Adjusting the strategy as tax laws change.
🧍♂️ MFJ → Single
↳ Adjusting the strategy when the household goes from married to single.
💸 RMDs
↳ Adjusting conversion amounts as RMDs come into play.
👨👩👧👦 Estate considerations
↳ Leaving pre-tax assets to lower income beneficiaries and Roth assets to higher income beneficiaries.
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Disclosures: Thrivent .com/social
Thrivent and its financial advisors and professionals do not provide legal, accounting, or tax advice. Consult your attorney or tax professional.
"We'll just put the baby on my health insurance."
1 hour later...We decided to do the exact opposite.
I recently met with a married couple that was looking over their health insurance now that they have their first child on the way.
After taking a look at their benefits package, I ran an analysis comparing the two health plans. Here's what we found out 👇
→ Putting the baby on the husband's plan could save them between $3,000 and $8,000 per year, depending on their medical expenses.
→ They’d gain access to an HSA, reducing their taxes by nearly $2,500 annually.
Don't let your employer benefits "happen to you."
Let our team help!
If you try to complete a Backdoor Roth IRA strategy and you have a balance in a…
→ Traditional IRA
→ SEP IRA
→ SIMPLE IRA
That conversion will become taxable.
However, if your spouse does not have any IRA balances, you may be able to do a backdoor Roth IRA for them!
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Someone is going to spend your money.
→ You
→ Your Beneficiaries
→ The Government
If you had to put percentages to it, how much do you want each one to spend?
My job is to help people get as close to their desired breakdown as possible.
Whether your goal is to...
→ Get more life out of your money
→ Maximize how much you leave behind
→ Minimize how much you leave to the government
→ All of the above
A good financial plan can help you achieve that.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Many people won’t ever have a need to convert their term policies to permanent policies.
But I do think it’s important to have a policy that is convertible throughout the entire term period.
You never know if…
→ You’ll become uninsurable in the future.
→ You’ll encounter estate tax issues.
→ Tax rates will increase dramatically.
→ You’ll want to maximize the single life payout of your pension with life insurance. → You’ll have unneeded RMDs and plan to leave your IRA to your kids.
Bottom line: A convertible term means you have options.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about diversification:
When you own a diversified portfolio...
There is ALWAYS going to be a stock or a fund somewhere that is outperforming you.
It's about having the discipline to stick to a plan, even when you're tempted to ask questions such as:
“Why would I invest in any other sector but technology?”
“Why would I want to own value stocks vs. just growth?”
“What’s the point of having international in my portfolio?”
“Why wouldn’t I just own the S&P 500 and nothing else?”
"Should I just put all my money in NVIDIA?"
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While diversification can help reduce market risk, it does not eliminate it. Diversification does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market. Concepts presented are intended for educational purposes. This information should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy, or product.
Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
"Everyone's always told me to go Roth. I hadn't even thought about changing the strategy."
Recently told a client switch their 401(k) contributions from Roth → Pre-tax.
Here's why 👇
→ The client had jumped up into the 32% tax bracket over the last couple years after spending most of his career in the twenties.
→ They aren't likely to pay 32% taxes in retirement based on their current level of retirement savings + contributions.
→ Most of their savings are in taxable brokerage and Roth accounts, so their RMDs won't be large relative to most Americans with their level of wealth.
→ They want to retire early, leaving them a good window to convert their pre-tax balance to Roth when they retire into a lower tax bracket.
→ They are charitably inclined and can give out of their IRA in the future via Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs).
Even if overall tax rates go up, it still makes sense for this couple to contribute pre-tax for the foreseeable future.
I tell more people to contribute to Roth. But finance is personal.
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Just had a strategy meeting with a planning client.
Here's what we did 👇
✅ Consolidated multiple bank savings accounts to get a higher yield on cash.
↳ Impact: Higher interest, fewer logins
✅ Sold appreciated & depreciated stocks at a net zero capital gain impact and reinvested in a taxable brokerage account of ETFs.
↳ Impact: More diversification, less market risk
✅ Recommended the backdoor Roth IRA strategy.
↳ Impact: More money growing tax-free
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Disclosures: thrivent.com/social
Met with a client that rolled over their pension into an IRA invested 100% in CD’s when they retired.
I wish I had the opportunity to meet with them before they made that decision.
Here’s why 👇
→ They didn’t want to take any risk with their investments.
→ They wanted to spend down their assets and not leave behind a huge inheritance.
By taking the life annuity on their pension, they could…
✅ Increase their purchasing power dramatically.
✅ Rely less on their investments to cover their living expenses.
✅ Spend their assets down to zero knowing that they won’t outlive their pension (and Social Security) income.
✅ Have less administrative headache vs. constantly renewing CD’s as they mature.
PSA - Please don’t let anyone you know make a major decision on their pension without talking to a professional first.
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Disclosures: Thrivent.com/social
Tax refunds aren't bonuses.
They're interest-free loans to the government.
Tax deductions are like coupons 🧾
Tax credits are like gift cards 💳
A $1 deduction saves you 24 cents if you're in the 24% tax bracket.
A $1 credit saves you $1.
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Disclosures: Thrivent .com/social
Thrivent and its financial advisors and professionals do not provide legal, accounting, or tax advice. Consult your attorney or tax professional.
"I got killed on taxes last year!" 🗣️
When people say this, it often means they owed a lot of money when they filed.
People's stress around taxes largely revolves around how much they owe when filing.
I get it, it's crucial.
You want your refund (or what you owe) as close to $0 as possible.
↳ Adjusting your withholding or making quarterly tax payments can fix that.
But the real game-changer is understanding how much of your income will be paid in taxes this year, and every year for the rest of your life.
And discovering the legal levers to pull to strategically reduce your lifetime tax bill.
That's what "tax planning" is.
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Disclosures: Thrivent .com/social
Thrivent and its financial advisors and professionals do not provide legal, accounting, or tax advice. Consult your attorney or tax professional.