Cinder Wealth Advisors

10/26/2026

The retirement plan question almost always shows up the same way.

The CPA says it's time to put some money away. Somebody mentions a SEP-IRA. Somebody else mentions a solo 401(k). The two get compared on one number, whichever lets you put more in, and an account gets opened.

That number rarely decides it.

What decides it is whether you have employees, whether you'll have them soon, and what the account runs into three years from now.

A solo 401(k) is built for an owner-only business, meaning you and a spouse who works in the business. Hire an eligible employee and the plan has to become a conventional 401(k) or come to an end.

A SEP-IRA works with or without employees. But you generally have to contribute the same percentage of pay for every eligible employee that you take for yourself. Fund a large percentage for your own account and you've committed to that percentage across the payroll.

And if you use a backdoor Roth, a SEP-IRA balance counts in the pro-rata calculation. A solo 401(k) doesn't.

None of that makes the SEP the beginner option. It's simple, contributions can change year to year, and it can generally be set up and funded up to your business filing deadline, including extensions. For the right owner it's a sound answer.

The problem is choosing either one without checking what it touches.

I wrote up how to actually decide.
https://cinderwealth.com/sep-ira-vs-solo-401k-buford-ga/

Which one are you using right now, and do you remember why you picked it?

General education, not advice about your situation.

10/22/2026

A lot of owners think the deadline for this year's taxes is December 31st.

For three of the six year-end moves I covered this week, it's earlier. It's your last payroll.

Your own 401(k) contribution. Your S corp salary. The withholding fix if you're behind on estimated taxes. All three run through payroll, and once that last run goes out, they're locked for the year.

Which three, and why, in this week's video.

Watch here - https://youtu.be/WX_T66rOxnI?si=JsQfeg_6jjs5NkXE

General education, not advice about your situation.

Six tax moves for your business die at midnight on December 31st. M...

10/21/2026

Your business is probably your income, your net worth and your retirement plan, all at the same time.

For a long time that's the right call. Staying focused and reinvesting in the thing you know best is usually what built the wealth in the first place.

The trouble shows up later.

When your income, your equity and your future all sit in one company, they don't take turns having a bad year.

A key employee leaves.

Your industry slows down.

A buyer walks.

Your health changes.

It all lands at once.

A lot of owners quietly assume the sale will fix it. Someday there's a liquidity event and everything diversifies on the same day.

That's a lot of pressure to put on one buyer, one valuation and one year you don't get to pick.

Building wealth outside the business isn't a vote against the business. It usually happens gradually.

Maybe that's retirement plans. Maybe it's Roth assets over time, taxable accounts or real estate. Maybe it's just taking some chips off the table on purpose instead of reinvesting every dollar.

At some point the business should stop being your entire financial plan and start funding it.

I made a short video on how owners start that shift. Link is below.

If you had to guess, how much of your net worth is tied up in your business right now?

General education, not advice about your situation.

If the plan is to sell your business one day and retire on the proc...

10/20/2026

Five key employees left within three months of a merger, taking a large share of the revenue with them. The business missed its targets, and the remaining sale price never got paid.

That’s the risk behind an earn-out, part of your payment depends on what happens after you sell.

Matt explains why the employees your deal depends on need a reason to stay, and how retention agreements and deferred compensation can help address that risk before signing.

General education only. Not individualized financial, tax, or legal advice.

10/16/2026

A client turned down a $40 million offer for his business because his financial plan said he needed $50 million.

When we rebuilt the plan around what his life actually cost, the number was well below the offer he’d rejected.

By then, the market had moved. The offer was gone.

Before you decide what you’ll accept for your business, make sure you understand what you actually need from the sale.

That’s a number worth checking while you still have time to act on it.

10/08/2026

A $100,000 truck write-off doesn’t mean you saved $100,000.

You spent real money to reduce your taxes by a smaller amount. If the business needs the truck, the deduction can help. If you’re buying it just because December is coming, ask whether the purchase makes sense on its own.

Business use, documentation, and vehicle classification still matter. Talk with your CPA before you buy.

Educational only, not tax advice.

10/06/2026

Its October. For a lot of contractors, the next time anyone looks hard at the tax side of the business is March, when the return gets prepared.

By then your CPA is documenting history.

Thats what they were hired to do, and it matters. They file an accurate return and keep you compliant.

But some of the most valuable options close before anybody sits down with last years numbers.

A retirement plan has to be designed and adopted in time.

The salary you pay yourself shapes what that plan can do.

What you buy, and in which year, matters too.

The pattern I see most is a business that went from $150,000 in profit to $500,000 without changing a thing about how it was set up.

The profit grew.

The planning around it never did.

Theres a real difference between preparing a return and planning for one.

If nobody is doing the second, it doesnt get done.

I wrote up the five places I keep finding money for trade and construction owners.

Read the full article here https://cinderwealth.com/tax-planning-for-contractors-georgia/

Educational only, not tax advice.

10/05/2026

Putting income-producing assets into an irrevocable trust doesn’t automatically eliminate income taxes. Depending on its structure, that income may still be taxable to you, the trust, or its beneficiaries.

This clip explains where the online advice goes wrong and when an irrevocable trust may serve a real estate planning or asset protection goal. Coordinate with your estate attorney and CPA before making changes.

Educational only. Not personalized tax or legal advice.

10/02/2026

Paying your kids to work in your business can be a legitimate tax strategy. But the payroll tax exemption you hear about online doesn’t apply to S corps.

In this video, I explain why your business structure matters, which businesses qualify for the under-18 Social Security and Medicare exemption, and why deducting wages is different from avoiding payroll taxes.

Educational only. Not personalized tax advice.

09/30/2026

A business owner told me recently that he could write off just about anything, as long as he paid for it out of the business account.

He wasn't being reckless. He'd heard it somewhere and it sounded plausible. Nobody had told him otherwise.

What makes something deductible is what it was for, not which account it came out of.

That one is easy. The four strategies owners send me most often are harder, because they're real. They're in the tax code. What gets cut between the tax code and the 30-second video is always the same thing, and it's the conditions.

One. Put everything in an irrevocable trust. Real, powerful planning in the right situation. Moving an asset into a trust does not make its income disappear.

Two. Buy a $100,000 vehicle and write off the whole thing. The large first-year deduction can be real. Business use is a requirement, not a formality.

Three. Rent your home to your business. Legitimate, and misused more than any other strategy on the list. It usually fails because somebody treated a documented rental like a note in a spreadsheet.

Four. Put your kids on payroll. My favorite, because the legitimate version is genuinely good. The internet version has one detail wrong, and it matters enormously for most profitable owners.

I walk through all four in about ten minutes, including when I'd actually use each one.

Watch the full video https://youtu.be/Q5QFBGJMIpk?si=uvZ3zMCvygYHn6E_