Month: February 2025

Your Biggest Lifetime Expense? Taxes. Here’s How to Pay Less and Save More with Dylan Stewart, CFP®, CPA (Ep. 35)

Your Biggest Lifetime Expense? Taxes. Here’s How to Pay Less and Save More with Dylan Stewart, CFP®, CPA (Ep. 35)

How does your savings strategy impact your financial future, particularly with tax season looming and new contribution limits set for 2025?

Jim KruzanCFP®, CRPC® and guest Dylan Stewart, a Certified Financial Planner™ and Certified Public Accountant, unravel the concept of tax-efficient waterfall funding—an approach crafted to maximize your savings efficiency while minimizing tax burdens. Together, they provide insights into how this process not only benefits savers but also retirees by reversing strategies to efficiently tap into accumulated funds.

Key episode discussions include:

  • The essentials of a tax-efficient waterfall strategy and its impact on your financial health
  • High-priority saving tactics, including emergency funds, employer 401(k) matches, and high-interest debt management
  • Medium-priority savings options like Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and how they can be leveraged for medical expenses
  • Low-priority contributions such as education savings plans and considerations for low-interest debt
  • Strategies to handle retirement withdrawals and manage tax efficiencies proficiently
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Jim Kruzan: 

Connect With Dylan Stewart:

About our Guest: 

Dylan Stewart, CFP®, CPA, serves as a Wealth Advisor at Kaydan Wealth Management, offering comprehensive wealth management and guiding clients through the Evolutionary Wealth Process. As a member of the Investment Policy Committee and collaborator with Senior Wealth Advisors, he plays a pivotal role in shaping and maintaining client financial strategies.

Making Financial Resolutions Stick (Ep. 34)

Making Financial Resolutions Stick (Ep. 34)

Starting the year with financial resolutions is common, but making them stick is the real challenge. 

How can you ensure your goals turn into lasting habits?

In this episode, Jim Kruzan, CFP®, CRPC®, explores strategies to set realistic financial resolutions and sustain them. He provides actionable insights on how to turn resolutions into habits, prioritize effectively, and build accountability systems for long-term success.

Jim discusses:

  • Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) financial goals for lasting success
  • How reflection on past achievements and failures can shape better goals
  • The importance of accountability partners and incremental progress in achieving resolutions
  • Strategies to manage competing priorities and select high-impact financial goals
  • Practical examples like saving for retirement, reducing debt, and establishing emergency funds
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Jim Kruzan: