Hance Financial, LLC

09/02/2026

Three accounts, three sets of rules, and no plain comparison anywhere you have looked.

Most families deciding how to save for a child's education are choosing between three accounts, and almost no one hands them a plain comparison.

Here is one.

A 529 is built for education costs. The parent keeps control, and when it is parent-owned, it is treated as a parent asset for aid, which is the gentler treatment.

A Coverdell covers a wider set of education expenses, including some before college. It carries a much lower annual contribution ceiling, contributions generally stop once the beneficiary turns 18, and the balance generally has to come out by age 30.

A custodial account is not an education account. It becomes the child's property at the age of majority — which age depends on your state — and from that point they can use it for anything. It is also treated as the student's own asset for aid, which weighs more heavily than a parent asset does.

Which one fits depends on your timeline, who is funding it, and what else is in the plan. That last part is the conversation.

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09/01/2026

It is time for a little Tuesday trivia.

It is time for a little Tuesday trivia.

Who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their work on behavioral finance?

A. Daniel Kahneman in 2002 and Richard Thaler in 2017
B. Amos Tversky in 1983 and Robert Shiller in 2013
C. Milton Friedman in 1976 and Eugene Fama in 2013
D. Elinor Ostrom in 2009 and Paul Krugman in 2008

The correct answer is A. Kahneman shared the 2002 prize with Vernon Smith, and Thaler was awarded his in 2017.

Thanks to their work, we have a much better understanding of the part our own behavior plays in making sound financial decisions and reaching long-term goals.

The others listed contributed to the field as well, but were either not awarded a Nobel Prize or were awarded one for something else. Amos Tversky, who worked closely with Kahneman for decades, died in 1996, and the prize is not awarded posthumously.

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08/31/2026

Five things to keep in mind if you are worried about paying for college.

Many of the families I work with start saving early for a child's education. With higher education costing what it does, it is worth looking at all the options.

Five things to keep in mind.

Choose the right educational path. Higher education is not one-size-fits-all. What are your child's goals, their interests, their reasons for going? The right school for them sets them up without a mountain of debt that may not have been necessary. Costs differ widely—in-state versus out-of-state, public versus private, two-year versus four-year, and technical or vocational programs versus all of them.

Take advantage of financial aid and scholarships. Completing the FAFSA is the first step for any student applying to college, regardless of the family's economic situation. It opens the door to grants, low-interest loans, and work-study. Then call the college's financial aid office directly and ask about scholarships. Every bit helps.

Talk to your child about a part-time job. Working through college builds time management and a resume, and it covers personal expenses that would otherwise be borrowed. Many businesses near campus run on that workforce, and work-study is worth checking if they qualify.

Consider all loan options. Loans are a last resort, and they do fill the gap between savings and cost. There are many of them. Check your state's resources for forgivable loans or assistance programs, and spend real time comparing before committing.

Decide where the money comes from before you need it. If you are helping from savings, which account it comes out of — and in which year — changes what the help costs you. That is a retirement question as much as a school one, and it is easier to answer in August than in the week the bill arrives.

And if loans are part of the plan, read the deferral fine print. Deferred does not mean interest has stopped accruing, and paying nothing during that period can add thousands to the balance.

Read more on the Hance Financial blog at https://bit.ly/4gAkXhk, or message me to talk it through.

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08/28/2026

Five things to keep in mind if you are worried about paying for college.

Many of the families I work with start saving early for a child's education. With the cost of higher education where it is, it is worth looking at all the options.

Five things to keep in mind.

Choose the right educational path. Higher education is not one-size-fits-all. What are your child's goals, their interests, their reasons for going? The right school for them sets them up without a mountain of debt that may not have been necessary. Costs differ widely—in-state versus out-of-state, public versus private, two-year versus four-year, and technical or vocational programs versus all of them.

Take advantage of financial aid and scholarships. Completing the FAFSA is the first step for any student applying to college, regardless of the family's economic situation. It opens the door to grants, low-interest loans, and work-study. Then call the college's financial aid office directly and ask about scholarships. Every bit helps.

Talk to your child about a part-time job. Working through college builds time management and a resume, and it covers personal expenses that would otherwise be borrowed. Many businesses near campus run on that workforce, and work-study is worth checking if they qualify.

Consider all loan options. Loans are a last resort, and they do fill the gap between savings and cost. There are many of them. Check your state's resources for forgivable loans or assistance programs, and spend real time comparing before committing.

Decide where the money comes from before you need it. If you are helping from savings, which account it comes out of — and in which year — changes what the help costs you. That is a retirement question as much as a school one, and it is easier to answer in August than in the week the bill arrives.

And if loans are part of the plan, read the deferral fine print. Deferred does not mean interest has stopped accruing, and paying nothing during that period can add thousands to the balance.

Read more on the Hance Financial blog at https://bit.ly/4c6MTIo, or message me to talk it through.

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08/26/2026

Most people planning to retire before 65 have thought hard about their portfolio, their Social Security timing, and what they will spend each month.

One question often comes up as an afterthought, and it is often the most expensive one. What do you do about health insurance until Medicare?

For a couple in their early sixties, that gap can run several years and cost more than anything else on the list. It is rarely on the original spreadsheet.

It gets much more manageable when you price it before you retire, not after. There are four real options — the ACA marketplace, COBRA, a spouse's employer plan, or retiree benefits from a former employer. Each has honest trade-offs on cost, continuity, and flexibility.

The part that surprises people is the income angle. The years before Medicare are often the lowest-income years of your adult life. No salary, no Social Security yet, living mostly off savings. That is exactly when ACA subsidies are largest.

And it is exactly when a Roth conversion looks most attractive. One poorly timed move can push your income past the threshold and cost you the premium tax credits you were counting on.

Two decisions that look unrelated, made in the same year, in opposite directions.
Have you started thinking through what coverage would look like if you retired before 65?

Read the full breakdown: https://bit.ly/4zCHoem

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08/21/2026

The accounts were built separately. The income has to be one thing.

You built the accounts separately, over thirty years, for different reasons. Then the paychecks stop and all of it has to become one income, in some order.

Our new guide walks through that order: how the three account types are taxed on the way out, why the sequence changes what you keep after tax, and one worked example carried end to end.

It also covers the part families plan separately and should not — where paying for a child or grandchild's school comes from, and how that lands against the same withdrawal order.

It is long, because the answer is. If you are within a few years of retiring with more than one account, it applies to you.

Read the guide on https://bit.ly/45CFkWc.

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08/20/2026

The part of preparedness no one packs: knowing where things are.

It is Emergency Preparedness Month, and most of the advice you will see is about water and batteries. Worth having. Here is the part that gets skipped.

Could someone you trust find things quickly if you could not tell them where to look?

Insurance policies. Property deeds and titles. A current list of which accounts exist and where. Passwords, or the location of the password manager. Medical directives and who holds them. The contact details of your attorney, accountant, and advisor.

Not the account numbers. Just the map.

The households I see handle this well are usually the ones where someone was on the other side of it once — a parent died, and finding things took months it should not have taken.

One folder, one conversation, one afternoon. It is the least dramatic preparedness there is, and the one families are most relieved to have.

Send me a message if you want to talk any of it through, or visit https://bit.ly/4xOX38G.

08/19/2026

Three things families believe about college savings that get in their way.

Three things I hear often that are worth correcting.

"We started too late to bother." Late is a reason to plan differently, not a reason to skip planning. What changes is which account and which timeline, not whether it is worth doing at all.

"Saving will just cost us financial aid." How savings are treated depends on whose name holds them and what kind of account they sit in. A parent-held account and a child-held account are generally not assessed the same way, and the details change with the rules. Treating it as one flat rule costs families more than the aid ever would.

"We have to choose between their school and our retirement." This is the one I hear most. It is a sequencing question far more often than it is a choice — where the money comes from, and in which year, rather than whether to help at all.

Read more on the Hance Financial blog at https://bit.ly/4x5RNhf, or send me a message to talk it through.

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Hance Financial, LLC was established in 2007 to help others make proactive, well-informed decisions about their finances. We take our commitment to helping clients gain confidence in their decisions seriously, and are driven by an earnest desire to make a difference in their lives. Whether you are j...

08/18/2026

The aid form opens around October. August is when the preparation happens.

The 2027-28 FAFSA is expected on or before October 1. It has opened ahead of that date before, which is the argument for being ready in August rather than scrambling in the fall.

Four things worth doing now.

Create the https://bit.ly/4ziAye5 accounts for both the student and the contributing parent. Setup can take a few days to confirm, and it is the step that holds people up.

Find the tax return the form will use. It pulls from two years prior, not last year's.

List every school being applied to. Colleges and states set their own deadlines, and the earliest one on your list is the one that governs.

And decide who is contributing what before the form asks. That conversation is easier in August than in a form field in October.

08/17/2026

Today was not the best of days, but it was the only one I had.

A boy was telling his mother about his day at school. He had been marked down for talking out of turn, and it had not been a good day. Then he said something that stayed with me.

"Today wasn't the best of days, but it was the only one I had."

Some days are not good ones. The market drops. A friend loses a job. Things simply do not go well. Whatever happens, it is still the only day we have. We cannot go back to a better one or skip ahead to it. We live this one.

I think about that most often with people who are two or three years from retiring. They have spent decades planning forward, which is the right instinct and the reason they are in the position they are in. And somewhere along the way, the forward-looking becomes the whole view.

You see it in small things. Trips deferred until the number is bigger. A visit put off until after the next quarter. A decision that could be made now is held back for a year that keeps moving.

The planning exists so that the present is available to you. Not the other way around.

I hope your day is a good one. I am here if you want to talk anything through.