As the Biden administration winds down and exits Washington today, President-elect Donald Trump is set to inherit a federal student loan system that looks much different than it did four years ago when he was last in office. President Biden enacted a slew of policies designed to lower payments and expand access to federal student loan forgiveness programs. In some respects, he was quite successful, with nearly $190 billion in federal student loan debt discharged during his time in office — an unprecedented figure. At least 5.3 million borrowers had their balances canceled. according to Education Department data released last…

Impulse buying refers to unplanned purchases made on a whim. These decisions are usually triggered by marketing strategies, the shopping environment, and your own mental state. Frequent impulse buys can have significant consequences. It can derail your budget, hinder savings, and potentially lead to debt. At its worst, it can prevent you from achieving long-term goals such as buying a home, funding your children’s education, or building wealth. Beyond your finances, impulse buying can also contribute to feelings of guilt, regret, and dissatisfaction. The solution is improved discipline and self-control. But while that may seem simple enough, it’s easier said…

If you’ve been following the news surrounding student loan forgiveness, you’ve likely seen the last minute push by the Biden Administration to get as many borrowers student loan forgiveness as legally possible. While several loan forgiveness plans were ultimately squashed and the Saving On a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan is currently paused while its legality is decided in the courts, the Biden camp still accomplished the unthinkable by forgiving federal student loans for 5 million borrowers over a span of four years. Some of this forgiveness was granted to students who were defrauded by their schools, whereas others had loans…

Adam “PacMan” Jones told me in an interview that it is difficult to watch so many people being put into prison for decades. “This sh*$ got to stop,” Jones told me, “you got one guy doing ayahuasca and they make a documentary about how great it is. Meanwhile, we got people in prison for decades for something like marijuana and it is legal now. That don’t make sense to me.” Jones, a former NFL cornerback and return specialist who played thirteen seasons—primarily for the Cincinnati Bengals—is no stranger to second chances. After serving a suspension in 2007, he returned to…

“Nobody wants to hear your story, they want to be invited into a story,” Donald Miller told me, in a recent interview about his new book, Building A StoryBrand 2.0. That’s it. That’s how financial planning—or perhaps more accurately, financial planners—have got the story all wrong. And regardless of the type of business that you’re in, I’m betting that the same holds true. We’ve made ourselves, and/or our solutions, the main character in the narrative of our client’s financial planning, rather than ceding that role to the natural actor, our client. This wise counsel comes from the StoryBrand guy, Donald…

Eight years ago, in December of 2016, the IRS issued the ill-fated first set of reporting requirements for 831(b) microcaptive transactions by way of Notice 2016-66. These reporting requirements were ultimately invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court based on the failure of the IRS to fully adhere to the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. After that fiasco, the U.S. Treasury Department started the process for a new set of regulations to designate certain microcaptive transactions as either listed transactions or transactions of interest. On January 14, 2025, the Treasury Department formally published those regulations in the Federal Register which…

The Justice Department has filed a civil complaint against Walgreens which operates more than 8,000 pharmacies throughout the United States alleging that they dispensed millions of illegal prescriptions in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). According to Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division “Our complaint alleges that Walgreens pharmacists filled millions of controlled substance prescriptions with clear red flags that indicated the prescriptions were highly likely to be unlawful, and that Walgreens systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions including controlled substance prescriptions, without taking the time needed to confirm…

Stocks have gotten very expensive, bonds very cheap. If you want to move money from equities to fixed income, use this guide. By William Baldwin, Senior Contributor Dramatic move this month from Vanguard Group: It’s saying that the classic portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, with which it has been so enamored for so long, might not be quite right. Consider, it says, going over to 40% stocks and 60% bonds. Wow. Dumb old bonds are better than sizzling stocks? It’s not quite that simple. Equities still offer a return premium over fixed income. But the premium has shrunk.…

I Can Show You Better Than I Can Tell You “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.” is the beginning of the poem “Sermons We See” by Edgar Guest that exemplifies what I believe to be an under appreciated aspect in building black wealth, early lessons and examples to emulate. financial lessons can shape our relationship with money for decades. Research by Vygotsky’s (1978) Sociocultural Theory, show us that learning is deeply influenced by social interactions, indicating that children gain financial knowledge through guided engagement…

Congress and the IRS made inheriting an IRA a very complicated, confusing event. Inherited IRAs are accompanied by a host of little-known rules that are traps for the unwary. In this post, I discuss the classic misunderstandings and mistakes about inherited IRAs. I’m not going to discuss the more recent difficulties brought by the enactment of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act in 2019 and the issuance of regulations under that law. Those rules are important but are discussed in detail elsewhere. There’s a host of under-the-radar rules beneficiaries need to know to minimize taxes and…