#99 – Year-End Money Moves, Market Shifts, and Tax Changes: What’s Shaping Retirement Conversations

Wes Moss [00:00:47]:
Your host, wes moss, co host, really along with the other co host, Jeff Lloyd. Where do we start today here on this Sunday morning.

Jeff Lloyd [00:00:54]:
JEFF lloyd, I’m just gonna start and say it’s great to be back in the studio with you today.

Wes Moss [00:00:58]:
We’re talking rate cuts. We’re talking about the percentage of Americans that shopped. First of all are the numbers from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Those numbers were very significant. Consumer looks okay to me from these numbers. And then what that means for the Federal Reserve this coming week and are we going to get a rate cut? We’re going to do a little bit of a history of the yo yo of interest rates over the last couple of years and of course, a holiday shopping check if we can get to it in time. Big tax changes to watch out for in 2026 and what to do before year end. Jeff Lloyd, do you remember the company Enron?

Jeff Lloyd [00:01:46]:
Yes. One of the biggest scandals and corporate frauds in American history.

Wes Moss [00:01:52]:
Now there’s a punchline to this, but let’s start out with a little history. The peak was the year 2000. I was, I was new in the business. It was again back then one of the largest companies in the U.S. top 10, Fortune 500 revenues, a hundred billion dollars a year, market cap, 60 to 70 billion dollars. And then we all know the story. It essentially went away. And it did so very quickly.

Wes Moss [00:02:15]:
The company had 20,000 employees worldwide. They were the innovator of energy trading. Remember that? Energy trading and just a powerhouse. And then with a spectacular implosion, they filed for bankruptcy, what, 24 years ago. Now when they left and we did that, we were looking, trying to find charts. We can’t because Enron’s been gone for so long. But you go back and look at the timeline, it essentially went in about two, call it three months. It went from a lot to zero.

Wes Moss [00:02:47]:
It collapsed. And so when that happens at a company that’s that large and takes up a big spot in the S&P 500, another company has to replace it. And we see a couple of these in any given year. It’s not all that common. But one company goes away, another company adds. And by the way, that is part of the reason why it’s. If you think about Morgan Hasel talked about this in the Psychology of Money, you want to own a big swath of companies because you never know what piece of artwork in your collection of 500 all of a sudden become really valuable. And I think this is a good example of an artist that was just good enough to get their foot in the door when it comes to getting into the gallery called the S&P 500.

Wes Moss [00:03:32]:
What was that company that replaced Enron 24 years ago? Jeff Lloyd?

Jeff Lloyd [00:03:38]:
Well, it was a little company back then, under 10 billion in market. I know 10 billion’s a lot, but relative to where it is today, today.

Wes Moss [00:03:47]:
10 billion is not. There are some companies still that are that small in the S&P 500, but that’s still a small company in a world of trillion dollar companies.

Jeff Lloyd [00:03:57]:
And that company that replaced Enron 24 years ago, Nvidia. And where’s Nvidia today, market cap wise?

Wes Moss [00:04:07]:
Well, it’s the largest company on the planet.

Jeff Lloyd [00:04:09]:
Largest company in the world. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:04:11]:
It’s ironic. I mean, every company in The S&P 500 had to make a debut. But it’s just interesting that the best, essentially the best performing stock we’ve seen in, in our lifetimes. I think maybe barring Monster Beverage, it is. It’s just to replace the most spectacular failure. Is exactly why The S&P 500 has worked over time. And it’s a, it’s a really, it’s an interesting corollary. So that’s just a little market history.

Jeff Lloyd [00:04:39]:
Do you know how much Nvidia stock is up since it joined the S&P 500? It’s up almost 44,000%. And that’s not a buy, sell or hold recommendation.

Wes Moss [00:04:51]:
Of course it’s not. Okay, so we’ve got a Fed meeting coming up this week. The Fed, We’ve been on Fed watch for the last couple of years every single. Because we’re always looking for a big inflection point. We had such low rates for so long and then we had huge inflation and then the Fed had to raise rates in a dramatic fashion. But before that, if you go back to 2019 and 2020, as Covid hit the pandemic hit, we saw 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It was emergency. It was in March of 2020.

Wes Moss [00:05:24]:
Emergency meeting. Dropped rates a full 1%. That’s 100 basis points. Our producer, Ryan Doolittle, lives in Basis Points. He’s a small restaurant and cafe. I think he calls it Basis Points. And that was the, that was kind of the crescendo of rates going down dramatically. That got rates essentially to zero.

Jeff Lloyd [00:05:45]:
Yeah, they went to zero.

Wes Moss [00:05:46]:
Then we’re at zero, basically for two years. So it was March of 2020 through March of 2022. We all know what happened in 2022, which was this. We were getting drowned by inflation. And the Federal Reserve said, wait a minute, we’ve got to raise rates. You’re going to slow down the economy. We’ve got to stop this. Free, easy money.

Wes Moss [00:06:05]:
Free, easy money finds its way into every crevice, is almost, I think of it as water. When rates are at zero, water just seeps into everything. And that’s what happened. And we ended up with incredibly high prices. Inflation hit double digits, and then we had 11 rate hikes where Federal Reserve’s pulling back on. I don’t know if you call that. What do you call the. When you’re steering a plane, it’s the joystick.

Wes Moss [00:06:31]:
You’re pulling back.

Jeff Lloyd [00:06:32]:
I should know this. One of my friends is a FedEx pilot, but I don’t know what that thing’s called.

Wes Moss [00:06:36]:
It’s a busy time of year for him. But 11 rate hikes, 2022 to July of 2023. And we went from zero. And they started out small, it was quarter of a percent, then it was a half a percent, then it was 3/4, 3/4, 3/4,. Until the plane went from essentially no altitude to five and a quarter to five and a half percent. And here we are today, slowly coming back down to the Runway. Still a long way to go, Tom. We’re sitting here today.

Wes Moss [00:07:06]:
The last rate cut was October, end of October, it was a quarter of a percent. And here we find ourselves today 3, 75 to 4. That’s the range. And coming up this next week, at least now, and this can. This is always subject to change. There’s about a 90% probability the Fed is going to cut another 25 basis points, call it a quarter percent at its last meeting of the year.

Jeff Lloyd [00:07:32]:
I think it’s kind of remarkable. We’ve talked about the Fed and what they’re going to do with interest rates. I feel like we’ve talked about it every week here on Money Matters and 2025. And here we are in December and we’ve only had two rate cuts this year. I feel like the market, like, has been anticipating it all year, yet we got our first rate cut of the year in September and then one more in October, and that’s all we’ve seen from a Fed rate cut this whole year.

Wes Moss [00:08:06]:
But the market has been hanging on every hope and word. And when we get days where you get a little bit of soft economic data, you see markets actually do well. Right now, inflation’s right around 3%. That’s still above the Fed’s target. Unemployment is still low, 4.4%. Jeff Lloyd, you usually would say not.

Jeff Lloyd [00:08:24]:
4.4% unemployment, but employment of 95.6%, the.

Wes Moss [00:08:30]:
Employment rate, and that’s been a good backdrop for stocks. I mean, if you look at where we are so far this year, it’s been a broad market even. Yes, we had the tariff tantrum in April, Markets started to pull back in March. Liberation Day, Tariff Day happened early April, and we saw markets drop about 20%. Tom since then, though, we’ve had this great recovery and that has been relatively sustained. If you look at the S&P 500, call it up 17, 18%. I look at international, up about 23%. If you look at the MSCI Equality International Index dividend stocks, I look at one of my dividend proxy ETFs, up about 16%.

Wes Moss [00:09:11]:
So they have kept up with the overall market really well. And, and even fixed income, if you look at the aggregate bond index or an ETF that tracks the aggregate bond index, again, including interest, which has been a big part of that, you’ve seen about six and a half to 7%. So even the dry powder safety bucket has done really well. So if you open up your 401k account and you have a balance of equities, US, perhaps some international and fixed income, all of those components have had a pretty good year. And part of that is this anticipation of we’re still in a Goldilocks type economy. The inflation’s not too hot, but it’s not too cold. Interest rates have come down some, but not dramatically. The consumer, which, let’s get to that, continues to spend.

Wes Moss [00:09:58]:
And if I look at what we’ve seen from a shopping perspective, people have been shopping. You take a look at the holiday season. Jeff Lloyd, those numbers are pretty staggering.

Jeff Lloyd [00:10:13]:
Yeah. We were looking at a report out from the National Retail federation and over 2 million people over the Thanksgiving weekend went shopping either in store or online.

Wes Moss [00:10:25]:
Over 200 million.

Jeff Lloyd [00:10:26]:
Over 200 million.

Wes Moss [00:10:28]:
When I read that statistic, I thought, well, that wasn’t me. I didn’t go to Any of these stores during that period of time. But that’s not true because I, I certainly.

Jeff Lloyd [00:10:36]:
You can go to the store on your mobile device.

Wes Moss [00:10:38]:
Yeah. And that’s exactly what I did. And I guess I didn’t. I shopped and I didn’t even know I shopped. And that would put me in. About half of the nation has already started their Christmas shopping. Or is it already finished their Christmas. As of Thanksgiving weekend, 84% of consumers had already begun.

Wes Moss [00:10:55]:
Okay, so that’s. I’m in that group.

Jeff Lloyd [00:10:57]:
I’m in the 16%.

Wes Moss [00:10:58]:
You haven’t started at all.

Wes Moss [00:11:01]:
Similar to last year. Shoppers still have over a little. Yeah, we still have halfway to go. According to shoppers. They still have lots to buy. But I’m in that group of already started and you’ve got to get going. Two and a half weeks, my friend.

Jeff Lloyd [00:11:15]:
And do you know how much they’re expected to spend on holiday shopping between the date of November 1st through the end of the year? That’s the holiday shopping season.

Wes Moss [00:11:25]:
What is the total?

Jeff Lloyd [00:11:27]:
We’re expecting over a trillion dollars.

Wes Moss [00:11:29]:
And we’ve never been over a trillion before, which is. That’s a fascinating amount of consumption. Leave it to you, the United States, to do that. But Black Friday, biggest shopping day of the year. A little over 80 million folks in stores and then 85 million online. Cyber Monday was the second most popular day for online shopping. That was 70, almost 76 million shoppers compared to last year. 64 million in 2024.

Wes Moss [00:11:57]:
So if you look at the growth and remember GDP, we’re looking for GDP growth, gross domestic product growing. The consumer is a big part of that overall shopping consumption projected to be. And this does not count cars or gas or restaurants up anywhere from. Let’s just call it around 4% increase year over year. That’s a big number on a massive number. Consumer looks okay to me. The national average dips below $3 a gallon for the first time in four years. How’s that for a headline?

Jeff Lloyd [00:12:34]:
It’s a great headline. But I tell you, it’s even better to see when you’re in line for gas and you see the price of gas in that 250, anything below $3 is a win.

Wes Moss [00:12:45]:
If you’re living kind of in town. It still doesn’t come close to that on the signs that I see. But if you’re driving on the highway and you pull over at a racetrack, you’re going to find that $3 somewhere. And. And in your home state of Birmingham, Alabama, it’s. You have Some of the cheapest gas on the planet.

Jeff Lloyd [00:13:04]:
Yeah, it’s below 250 at some places. I drive on i20 a lot, and it was 247 last I saw was the cheapest I saw.

Wes Moss [00:13:15]:
So it’s a big deal. If you think about. You go back to June. If you go back to June of 2020, that’s when we hit the national average, over $5 a gallon. Now, we’ve been below 4 for a couple of years now. It’s been what, three years? But now we’ve finally gotten to the point where the average price per gallon in America. So this would not count as California. Certainly not New Jersey, which, by the way, I was in New Jersey a month or so ago.

Wes Moss [00:13:39]:
I for. You’re not even allowed to pump your own gas.

Jeff Lloyd [00:13:40]:
You can’t pump your own gas, right?

Wes Moss [00:13:41]:
Oh, I was so used to parking at the pump to then, even if I’m just going in, not getting gas. And I did that. And this guy, I thought he was getting mugged. He’s knocked on my window.

Jeff Lloyd [00:13:53]:
We’re getting looks around the studio like, what are y’ all talking about? Like, you cannot get out of the car in New Jersey and pump your own gas. They have gas attendants that do that for you.

Wes Moss [00:14:02]:
Yeah, it’s full service. There’s no self service when it comes to gasoline. But say you drive an suv, a giant American suv. And by the way, we know that fuel economy standards look like they’re going down as of this week, which is another headline. But let’s say you drive one of those big American SUVs, where a big American truck doesn’t matter. It’s just a gas guzzler, which you used to kind of hide the fact that maybe you drove one of those. Today you’re saying, well, imagine 20,000 miles a year on average. And if you live on the outskirts of Atlanta, you’re doing more than that.

Wes Moss [00:14:35]:
But 20,000 miles a year, the average driver is going to use, let’s call it 20 miles per gallon. So that’s a thousand gallons. 20,000 miles divided by 20,000 now in a big American SUV. I think your math is wrong on that, Jeff, because it should be more like eight.

Jeff Lloyd [00:14:51]:
Yeah, yeah. It’s not getting.

Wes Moss [00:14:53]:
My wife has one of these. And I think it. Right. If you go to the average.

Jeff Lloyd [00:14:56]:
Yeah, it’s in the single digits.

Wes Moss [00:14:57]:
If you’re driving in town, it’s more like 8. Let’s call it 10, was for real time math. So you’re using 2000 gallons a year. The price difference is $2. $2 times 2000 gallons. You’re talking about $4000 in your pocket this year. Well, moving forward relative to where we were with $5 gasoline, that’s a tax cut. That’s just like a tax cut in America.

Wes Moss [00:15:22]:
And that money gets spent. No wonder shopping has gone through the roof. I think that could be a big chunk of it.

Jeff Lloyd [00:15:29]:
I remember filling up three years ago in the summer of 2022. Gas prices at all time highs. And I have an SUV and the gas pump would actually cut off at $100 and my tank still wasn’t full. That’s how expensive it was.

Wes Moss [00:15:44]:
You just wanted to throw in that all time high one more time. More Money Matters straight ahead.

Wes Moss [00:15:52]:
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Wes Moss [00:16:18]:
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Wes Moss [00:16:24]:
We were recounting the dramatic spending numbers. It was over 202 million Americans shopping through the what we call the heightened holiday season. We’re going to spend the National Retail Federation is estimating over close to $1.1 trillion in holiday spending. And we have not seen that before. We’ve never crossed the trillion mark. But I think more importantly Jeff Lloyd is the growth in spending. That’s a real number to grow. Call it.

Wes Moss [00:16:55]:
The estimates are 3.7 to 4 and a quarter percent of growth on a number that that’s that big already from last year. That means the consumer’s doing okay. Now there’s a lot of other things we can look point to. The unemployment rate is climbing just a tiny bit. There’s some softness there. We’re still worried about AI taking all the jobs in the planet over the next several years, which I do not think is going to happen. But the consumer is in okay shape. The other thing is that we were talking through a break is that we’ve gotten some broadening in this market meaning that at the top of the show we talked about the s and P500.

Wes Moss [00:17:32]:
I’ll call it close to 18%. But dividend stock ETFs would be more value oriented are pretty close to that year to date. So it’s not just a one Trick pony, that’s the mag seven like we saw over the last really couple of years. We’ve also seen fixed income or bonds, the aggregate bond index do pretty well anywhere from 5 to 7%. So that’s been another diversifier that’s worked. But from a sector perspective.

Jeff Lloyd [00:18:01]:
Jeff Lloyd we were looking at this data over the last week in every sector year to date, there are 11 of them. Every sector is positive on the year. You got communication services, tech, industrials, healthcare, utilities, energy, real estate, consumer staples.

Wes Moss [00:18:19]:
You’re going best to worst, I’m just.

Jeff Lloyd [00:18:22]:
Saying, all over the board. So yeah, tech and communications have been the strongest. We also got a sector like utilities that’s up almost 15% for the year. Financials up over 10%.

Wes Moss [00:18:34]:
So a good year really across the board. Do we have our worst sector year to date?

Jeff Lloyd [00:18:40]:
I think it’s real estate that’s just slightly positive on the year.

Wes Moss [00:18:44]:
Right. If I look at the Vanguard real estate index, which is a little bit different than maybe the. The itself only up about 4% on the year. So not every single corner of the market has done well, but there has been broad participation from utilities as an example to communication services. So outside of tech and even financials, it’s financials so far this year, not up quite as much as the rest of the market, but still up double digits. So we’ve seen some broadening, Tom, with that, which we’ll see where we head in 2026. But speaking of 2026, we’ve got some tax changes coming and some of these really kicked in this year. And I wanted to get to this big tax changes.

Wes Moss [00:19:32]:
Watch out for in 2026 what you can do before year end, there’s not a lot of time. If there’s only two and a half weeks before Christmas, that means there’s what, only three and a half weeks before the new year. But it’s not no time. So at least there’s some potential for this to make some moves potentially when it comes to the time we do have left and I want to go through this. Remember we had the obbb, there was another phrase that was the ob3. Ob3. I love that. I always forget that.

Wes Moss [00:20:00]:
Okay, the ob3, which is the one big beautiful tax bill that was passed this past summer, it does take effect for this year. So there are a lot of those changes are coming in this year as we do our taxes, let’s call it early next year for this year. But then there’s some other things that are kicking in that don’t start until January of 2026. But let’s go through, I think are some of the biggest provisions of this. Of course, check with your CPA or your CFP when it comes to your particular situation because taxes are as unique as fingerprints. You cannot find, I guess, unless you have zero income. And then you wouldn’t have a tax return anyway. You can have a million tax returns and they’re all going to be different in some way.

Wes Moss [00:20:46]:
It’s, it’s so unique to the individual. And that’s why everybody has to do their own planning. But here’s the list. The SALT deduction changes, charitable deduction rules change for next year. HSA is opening up to millions of folks. Four, and this is for this year, last chance to get a 30%200 clean energy credit. And then number five, the return of the 100% bonus depreciation. It’s depreciation, but it’s a bonus.

Wes Moss [00:21:15]:
That’s why I think this one is hard for people to grapple with because it’s depreciation, which sounds bad or something going down, but it’s a bonus at the same time. So it’s a, it’s almost.

Jeff Lloyd [00:21:26]:
So you’re saying there’s no appreciation for depreciation is what you’re trying to tell us.

Wes Moss [00:21:31]:
Not bonus depreciation. And then more flexibility coming for 529 plan. So let’s start with salt, which is the state and local taxes. You put those all together and go back before the latest tax changes you had, these were huge deductions. You take your state and your local thinking about your property taxes and that could be a deduction. And they capped that to $10,000. That cap is now changing dramatically. And that is for this year, it’s 2025.

Wes Moss [00:22:03]:
It goes, it quadruples to 40, $40,000. So think about the math on that. If you were to be able to take full advantage of that and you’re at a, let’s call it a 35% rate. This is an example. Married couple earning $450,000 higher. Salt cap means deducting the full 40 if they make it to 40 versus just 10. It’s an additional in addition to what you could do, $10,500 in tax savings. That’s a big number that is taking effect.

Wes Moss [00:22:35]:
That’s this year. However, there are income limitations on that, meaning that once you go over $500,000 in income, adjusted gross income, that starts to, it starts to phase out. And then once you get to 600 and this is married, finally jointly, once you get to 600, then it’s wiped out completely. So you can’t take that deduction. So if here you are at the end of the year, you’ve got a couple weeks left and you’re close but still under that 500k mark in income, there may be some room for you to defer income. So maybe you haven’t fully maxed out your 401k and there’s some room there. Maybe you do that here in December to keep your AGI because we know that pre tax dollars go into a 401k or it’s going to lower your overall income for the year. Maybe there’s an opportunity for that.

Wes Moss [00:23:24]:
I know it’s late in the year and this is maybe a stretch, but at least it’s something to think about as we move forward.

Jeff Lloyd [00:23:30]:
Do you think that is the most impactful tax change that consumers are going to see?

Wes Moss [00:23:39]:
Me, for some people it’s just, it’s a very, it is a big deal. The question if you’re in a, let’s say you’re in a low tax state and you’re not paying a lot of state income taxes and your property taxes are low, it doesn’t move the meter as much. Where this got a lot of political beach ball back and forth was in the, it’s in the high tax states is really where you would, you would see this. So think about, people really care about this in New Jersey and New York and California where you also had, you have super high property taxes. So it means different things depending on the state you’re in. I think I always think of Georgia, particularly Atlanta. We are the most wonderful blend of the nation economically. You look at our economy, it’s so diverse.

Wes Moss [00:24:28]:
It’s like the entire nation. It’s not like a Texas oil economy or a California tech economy or a New York banking economy. We have everything here and we have kind of, let’s call it middle of the road state taxes that call it in the 5% range and property taxes are not low in the state of Georgia. So I think it’ll be helpful to folks here in our state. Number two, charitable deductions. Those rules are changing starting in 2026. Now what’s changing next year they’re putting in a new floor for before deductions can even count. They look at your adjusted gross income and they take a half a percent of that.

Wes Moss [00:25:10]:
So if you’re only giving away a half a percent of what your AGI is, that’s not going to count. So there’s a new floor. There’s also a new cap. It’s a 35% cap on the value of those tax benefits. Now this doesn’t move the meter all that much unless you’re really gifting some larger numbers. And I guess my analogy here would be it’s still full strength coffee right now. Next year it’s a little watered down. If you’re going, you’re contemplating on deductions, whether it’s this year or next year, they could be a little more valuable.

Wes Moss [00:25:38]:
If it’s done this tax year 2025 versus next year, when it starts to, the coffee gets diluted a little bit. Here’s an example. High income donor gives $50,000 this year, they get about it, let’s call it at a 35% tax bracket, they get about an $18,500 tax. Under the new rules that will start next year. That same gift of 50 grand because of the new AGI floor and the new cap, they could end up with about almost $2,000 less in tax savings. So in short, big charitable gifts may pack a little bit more punch in 2025 versus what will happen next year. Number three, HSA is opening up to potentially millions of new people. So anyone here’s what’s changing people that have, they’re on the ACA Affordable Care act if they’re under the bronze plan.

Wes Moss [00:26:34]:
Bronze as in the metal with a catastrophic plan. They now maybe become HSA eligible. The HSA we all know that’s the holy grail of healthcare. Call it. I think of an HSA Health Savings Account as a healthcare 401k. Money sits in there, it grows tax deferred, you use it for healthcare expenses. If you don’t use everything, it just continues to grow. So it’s a 401k if you will, when it comes to medical costs.

Wes Moss [00:27:03]:
So for if you’re already on one of those plans and you’re not eligible right now for an HSA, then you should be eligible starting next year. And that could be a lot of Americans. The limits for next year, about 4,400 bucks for an individual, 8,750 for a family, plus $1,000 catch up in the HSA for anybody. That’s 55 plus. So think of HSAs. They’re the tax free super refrigerator where your healthcare dollars sit and they can grow and they stay cold forever even if you don’t use them and you can choose to use them out into the future. Now this one I would say is a stretch, but at least it’s interesting and worth noting because there’s not a lot of time left to get any work done. Now maybe if it’s a heat pump or you’re getting windows installed, but if it’s a, if you’re looking for clean energy credits, which is up to 3200 bucks for the year and you’re going to do something energy efficient, some sort of home improvement, it’s got to be done before the end of the year.

Wes Moss [00:28:05]:
You can’t just pay your contractor this year. It’s got to be done, installed, paid for, and obviously you’ve got to spend up to the 3200 for something that’s energy efficient. Windows, doors, solar heat pumps, et cetera. Before December31, the return of the hundred percent bonus depreciation. Jeff Lloyd, you called this what the.

Jeff Lloyd [00:28:27]:
No appreciation for depreciation.

Wes Moss [00:28:30]:
It’s because it’s a little bit, it’s a little bit of an oxymoron. You’ve got bonus of depreciation. And usually you’re thinking, is depreciation good? You don’t want a depreciating asset. But this is a slightly different context. And meaning that you’re getting a deduction typically that gets depreciated over a period of time. And what the bonus depreciation means is that you get to take the whole thing all at once. And that’s a, could be a bonus. If you’re a business owner and you’re needing to buy some sort of equipment for your company, anything with a 20 year life or less.

Wes Moss [00:29:08]:
So think of it this way. Here. Imagine Jim has a small landscaping company. He needs a $30,000 truck. Before this rule change, Jim could only deduct a portion of that truck every year. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit.

Wes Moss [00:29:22]:
With a hundred percent bonus, it’s a bonus to take the whole depreciation at once. Jim can deduct the entire 30 grand in the year that he buys it, even if the business. Well, that’s that. Now this could be something different for everybody. What does not qualify, bonus depreciation doesn’t count for things like land, buildings, personal use items. You can’t buy stocks with it and depreciate that. So it is, it is. Equipment is a good example of that and that is accelerating for this tax change.

Wes Moss [00:29:58]:
Number six, a more flexible 529 plan. So you could already use pre college. You could use this for Pre College. So 529 plans have gotten a little bit more flexible over the years. So think about materials and tutoring and testing. It’s up, it was $10,000 in 2025 it’s going to 20,000. So it’s becoming a little more flexible in the coming year. So broader use of the 529 plan.

Wes Moss [00:30:26]:
Parents think about that. Even adults can if you still have 529 plan left over, you can use that for upskilling, et cetera. And it’s and it’s just a broader perspective. 529s used to be a kind of a one trick pony. Today you can think of it a little bit more like, I don’t know, a Swiss army knife. Many tools all in one. So wrap it all up. Check your 2025 income.

Wes Moss [00:30:51]:
Does staying under the 500k if you’re married, filing jointly help maximize salt, which could be up to $40,000 or state and local tax deduction. Think about accelerating charitable giving. I’d say that one is a little watered down. I don’t know if that one’s my favorite. The new HSA Eligible insurance options to have an HSA depending on the on the plan you’re in. If you’re within with the aca, think about if you’ve got a couple of weeks left for energy upgrades for the clean energy credits here in 2025, the bonus depreciation and slightly more flexible 529. Ployd always a pleasure having you here in studio.

Jeff Lloyd [00:31:33]:
It was a great show, great time being in studio with you.

Wes Moss [00:31:36]:
Well, you can find Jeff Lloyd and me and the Money Matters team. It’s easy to do so@your wealth.com that’s y o u r your wealth.com have a wonderful rest of your day.

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Disclaimer [00:32:41]:
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