57 guides across seven clusters — retirement, 401(k) rollovers, business retirement plans, California taxes, investing basics, family money and careers in finance — plus 11 calculators and a glossary of every term they use. All of it free, none of it gated, and all of it written by the firm rather than syndicated from a vendor. Where a page uses a number, it cites where the number came from.
Retirement
When you can stop, how much is enough, Social Security timing, and how a California public pension changes the arithmetic.
How much do you need to retire in California?
A framework, not a magic number — expense-based math, the 4% research honestly caveated, and how a CalPERS or CalSTRS pension changes the answer.
401(k) vs IRA: the order of operations
Match first, then HSA, then IRA, then back to the 401(k) — the reasoning behind each step, with 2026 limits.
Roth vs traditional
The one question that decides it — your marginal rate now versus later — plus the backdoor Roth pro-rata trap.
When to claim Social Security
62 vs 67 vs 70 from SSA's own schedules, break-even framed honestly, survivor math, and the 2025 WEP/GPO repeal.
Sequence-of-returns risk
Why the first five retirement years dominate, and the mitigations that don't require predicting markets.
Qualified charitable distributions
Giving directly from an IRA after 70½ — how it interacts with RMDs and why it beats a deduction for many.
401(k) rollovers
The four options when you change jobs, and the traps that make two of them expensive.
The 401(k) rollover guide
The four options step by step, the 20% mandatory withholding trap under IRC § 3405(c), the 60-day rule, and when leaving the money put is right.
Seven costly rollover mistakes
Indirect rollovers, cash-outs, lost NUA elections, pro-rata contamination, vesting timing, plan loans and orphaned accounts.
Business retirement plans
For owners: what the mandate requires, what a plan really costs, and which design survives your payroll.
SEP vs SIMPLE vs safe harbor vs solo 401(k)
Which plan fits which business, and the point at which each one stops working.
Safe harbor 401(k) designs
3% nonelective versus basic and enhanced match — what each costs and what each buys you in testing relief.
What a small-business 401(k) actually costs
The four fee layers, who charges which, and where the money quietly leaves.
The solo 401(k) for the self-employed
The spouse rule, the part-time employee trap, and the day it stops being a solo plan.
Cash balance plans
How high-income owners use them — and the funding commitment nobody mentions up front.
Pooled employer plans (PEPs)
How they work, what they genuinely simplify, and who they actually fit.
What is a 3(38) fiduciary?
The plain-English version of the role, and what discretion actually transfers.
3(21) vs 3(38): who holds the liability
The distinction that matters when something goes wrong.
ERISA basics for small employers
The duties in plain English, for owners who did not know they had any.
Integrating a 401(k) with payroll
360° versus 180° integration, and the late-deposit rules that catch small employers.
Do retirement benefits actually retain employees?
An honest look at what the evidence supports and what it does not.
Taxes
California-specific, because a high-tax state changes the answer.
California income tax and your portfolio
Why the account type matters as much as the investment when the state takes its share.
Capital gains in a high-tax state
Federal versus California treatment, and what that does to a sale decision.
Tax-loss harvesting
The mechanics, the $3,000 limit, and the wash-sale rule people trip over.
Prop 19 and inherited California property
What changed for inherited homes, and the clock that starts at death.
Investing basics
First principles for first-generation investors. Nothing here requires you to believe anyone's forecast.
Compounding, from the beginning
What $50 a month can do over decades — clearly labeled hypothetical — and why fee drag compounds by the same math.
Index funds vs active management
What the SPIVA scorecards actually show, over what horizons.
Asset allocation
The decision that drives most of the outcome, and how to make it deliberately.
What are ETFs?
A plain-English guide to the wrapper, and how it differs from a mutual fund.
Rebalancing
Risk control by rule rather than by mood.
Dollar-cost averaging vs lump sum
What the math says, what behavior says, and why they disagree.
Covered calls
The income, and the trade-offs, stated honestly.
How fees compound against you
Including ours — the arithmetic runs the same direction for every firm.
Family money
Written for households doing this without an inherited playbook. Much of this cluster exists in Spanish too.
First-generation wealth
Building without a playbook, and the pressures that come with being the first.
Supporting your parents while building your own future
How to do both without quietly sacrificing one.
529 plans for California families
ScholarShare, and the no-state-deduction twist that changes the calculus here.
Teaching kids about money
The playbook a family passes on, by age.
Estate basics for California families
Probate, trusts and community property — structural background so the attorney conversation goes faster.
Careers in finance
How this profession actually works, and how to get into it from here. These are the pages we would have wanted at nineteen.
How to become a financial advisor in California
The whole route: education, exams, registration, and what the first three years look like.
The Series 65 exam
Format, passing score, cost and the California rules — verified against NASAA, FINRA and 10 CCR § 260.236.
CFP vs CFA vs ChFC
Requirements, real cost, real timeline, and which credential fits which career.
Working at an RIA vs a wirehouse
Standard of care, pay, and who owns the book. We are one side of this fork and say so on the page.
Compare, side by side
The same question put two ways, with a table and a verdict — written by a firm that sells neither option.
All twenty-five comparisons
The hub: paying for advice, accounts, business owners, pensions.
Fee-only vs fee-based vs commission
Three ways an adviser is paid, where each shows in Form ADV, and why fee-only is not automatically cheaper.
Robo-adviser vs a human adviser
Where the algorithm is enough — written by the more expensive option.
401(k) vs 403(b) vs 457(b)
Same deferral limit, different rules, and the pairing that lets a California public employee save twice.
Index funds vs active management
What the evidence shows, with the sources.
Dollar-cost averaging vs lump sum
What the arithmetic favours, and why people do the other thing.
Is a financial adviser worth it?
Asked of an adviser, so it opens with the cost in dollars and lists the five cases where the answer is no.
AUM fee vs flat fee vs hourly
Three pricing models and the conflict each one creates — ours named first.
What advisers actually charge
Industry benchmarks by portfolio size, the three layers of cost, and where this firm sits — including the unflattering half.
Fiduciary vs best interest vs suitability
What each standard permits, when it attaches, and how to check any firm in two minutes.
Roll it over, leave it, or cash it out
Four options at a job change — including the case for leaving it alone, which nobody is paid to make.
Target-date fund vs a managed portfolio
When the fund is already the whole answer, and the four places it runs out.
529 plan vs Roth IRA for college
Which one, in what order, and the California rules that differ from the federal ones.
S-corp vs sole proprietor, for retirement
The S election saves payroll tax and shrinks your contribution base at the same time.
Social Security at 62 vs 67 vs 70
The percentage table, the survivor benefit that usually decides it, and the WEP/GPO repeal.
California
The state departs from federal law in more places than any other, and almost all of them cost money. This is the list.
Our own research
Figures we compute from public data and publish free to quote, because the numbers for this region are not otherwise published anywhere.
Calculators
Every one runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored, and none of them asks for an email address.
Retirement savings calculator
Project a balance at a return you choose — labeled hypothetical — with an inflation toggle.
CalSavers vs 401(k) cost calculator
Your headcount and payroll against both options, including the SECURE 2.0 credits.
Fee analyzer
What a percentage costs in dollars, over the years you will actually hold it.
Rollover calculator
What the 20% withholding trap costs if an indirect rollover goes wrong.
Roth conversion calculator
The bracket arithmetic on a partial conversion.
RMD calculator
Required minimum distributions from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table.
California take-home pay
What a deferral actually costs your paycheck after California tax.
SECURE 2.0 credit estimator
The startup and auto-enrollment credits, worked honestly.
Plan cost estimator
What a small-business plan runs, by the four fee layers.
CalPERS benefit estimator
Classic versus PEPRA, from the published formulas.
CalSTRS benefit estimator
2% at 60 versus 2% at 62, side by side.
Glossary
Ninety-seven terms used on this site, each defined in one plain sentence before anything else. Browse the glossary →
En español
Doce guías escritas originalmente en español — no traducidas por máquina — sobre el ITIN, el estatus mixto, el Seguro Social, las remesas, los planes 529 y cómo empezar a invertir. Ver la sección en español →
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