Evan Drury of Gateway Financial Partners, Montclair, NJ (2026)

07/18/2026

There is no magic investment portfolio. But here's what you can do.

I've seen tons of different portfolios over the years and special options like alternatives with names like Long/Short equity, venture capital and managed futures to name a few.

I've watched analysts build portfolios with many components.

I can tell you the more complex the investments became the less people understood what they invested in and performance was usually on par or a little lower than simple vanilla investing.

Complexity has it's place for some.

Risk management is important for sure.

But understand that if you can hang onto your investments for the long-term simple is often the most effective.

Index funds are great for most people. They can perform just as well as any investment over time.

Just make sure you have an allocation that diversifies the indices you have so you aren't beholden to the success of one area of the market.

Not advice to anyone just my 2 cents.

07/16/2026

How much cash should you have before and during retirement?

Some of this depends on the family or the assets you have.

These are not strict guidelines to follow just ideas based on two different stages of life.

While working - How much cash?

3 months of living expenses - For dual income households

6 months - For single income households

Now to figure this out you need to know your annual spend.

What are the wants and needs.

Now focus on just the needs.

When it comes to just the needs what are the expected taxes if someone were to lose their job or jobs?

Then combine the needs with assumed taxes and determine your 3 and 6 month emergency fund number.

After work number

I like to suggest 6 months if possible.

For those with greater wealth I've seen more people recently say that they want more cash protection especially with the current decent return on cash in money markets

- In this case they have a years worth of expenses in cash, anything more than a year in retirement emergency funds is probably too much.

Although there are the rare situations where families would like that figure to be a bit higher.

This is dependent on the person and situation.

In retirement the emergency fund becomes peace of mind and portfolio protection

As you can take from your cash instead of portfolio especially in difficult market times.

Now the taxes will depend on income/distributions you're required to take combined again with expenses related to need.

Eventually this is likely to be spent down, although you can try to preserve it.

The main goal here is to protect early retirement years especially because down market years early while taking distributions

are typically the most challenging situation to making your money last, in terms of the overall market anyway.

07/15/2026

Dave Ramsey is wrong. 4 things and why he's wrong.

1. 8% withdrawal rates are dangerous.

Way too high as his thought process is simple. He said that after 4% inflation since the market returns 12% per year on average you can take out 8% each year and be fine. This forgets sequence of returns for one. Which if this is used espeically in bad market times it can have disasterous results on your portfolio.

2. 12% market returns is a bad assumption for most.

This relies on the S&P over many decades and most people can't stomach 100% stock allocations also this average my not repeat over the next few decades.

3. Debt should not be the only focus.

Debt should be managed with everything else in your life.

4. 30 year mortgages are better than 15.

Yes you save interest with the 15 year.

Yes you're paid off quicker.

But you lose out on a lot of flexibility that the 30 year provides.

If you have a low interest rate then that money could be invested over time producing more for you than just paying of your home early.

Or you could decide to have a 30 year and pay it off in 15.

The main thing is if you need to take your foot off the gas with a 30 year you can and you have more options in your life to maximize your position long-term.

Dave is great for paying down debt but his advice is lacking when it comes to other areas.

07/14/2026

Giving to children - Taxes vs. No Taxes

Some people like to give to their children while living so that they can watch their family enjoy the money while they're alive.

Others need to wait or want to wait.

Here's one tax situation and some options to plan around.

I spoke with this person recently who's 80 years old.

He wanted to gift to his 3 children.

He has taxable account and a retirement account.

Let's focus on the taxable account.

If he used the taxable account that's treated with Long-term capital gains rates for any position held a year and a day.

Capital gains rates (Married Filing Jointly)
0% - $0 to $98,900
15% - $98,901 to $613,700
20% - Over $613,700

High income can be subject to 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)

There is the possibility of 0% federal capital gains taxes but that depends on the situation.

Many people end up paying 15% capital gains.

Now you can either wait until you pass which allows for what's called a step-up in basis.

In this case your heirs will be stepped up to the new valuation meaning in this example they won't have a gain.

But this doesn't solve the issue of gifting in the present.

The other option does not only consider paying taxes at 0% to 15% in most cases but what if the position were to drop significantly in value?

It's possible you could lose far more in the asset than the taxes would have been.

In this case the person would need to create a gain/loss harvest strategy and likely distributions over time to determine their capital gains that make sense to realize in a given year and for how many years.

And make sure they account for other nuances like IRMAA so they can afford to continue distributions without significant impact to their long-term plan.

The main thing is make a plan and determine with the data you have available, the best strategy to complete your long-term goals.

07/10/2026

I want to retire soon, when should I take social security?

You see this question all the time so how do we figure this out?

Typical social security ages:

62 (Reduced benefit)

67 (Typically the full retirement amount these days)

70 (Maximum amount)

Most people seem to want to go for full retirement age and get the full benefit they have.

Not a bad general approach because you won't wait too long to retire or have more money to enjoy retirement and you won't take it too soon and have a reduced benefit.

1. How much income do you have?

Let's look at a general million dollar portfolio.

IRA
$1,000,000 x 4% = $40,000/year (There are more ways to do this, general example here)

Now a social security example by age (using online sample numbers):
a. 62 - $1,465 = $17,580 (annual)
b. 67 - $2,119 = $25,428
c. 70 - $2,634 = $31,608

Also know the social security continues increasing each year when you reach say 63 or 64 and with what's called COLA or cost of living adjustments.

Let's stay simple here and go with age 67.

$40,000 (portfolio)
Social security = $50,856 (combined spouses)
Not considering taxes = $90,856
Less approximate assumed state and federal taxes = $7,000

=$83,856 or $6,988 monthly

Now we know what income we have in general. which means that your expenses in retirement need to be at or below what you can create for your lifestyle in retirement.

Other ideas
A. Stagger benefits - one spouse collects and another delays
Usually the spouse with the higher benefit would delay, not only for a better benefit while living but to also pass on their higher benefit if they pass earlier.
B. Wait longer if you don't need the benefit.
C. Consider delaying based on your tax strategy.
D. Claim after 62 but before 67.
E. Know that there are draw backs to claiming early and if you work you could have your benefit reduced.

This is an overly simplified example and not advice for any one person.

The point is make a plan to retire and know what you have and then how to improve that..

Then know what options you might be able to use to retire at one point or even earlier than you expected.

There is no one size fits all.

07/09/2026

Will the market crash because of the Iran war?

Yes

No

Maybe

No one knows

The only thing you can do is make a plan now.

Regardless of what happens in the next 1-5 years.

So you aren't panicked if/when something happens.

You have a strategy to hold onto through the good and the bad.

07/08/2026

People look at houses like a great investment.

Because they don't track the growth (or lack of) each year and just keep paying their mortgage for 30 years.

Imagine what you can do with an investment portfolio that you add to and keep invested for 30 years.

Homes require upkeep, taxes and mortgage payments.

When you calculate the total cost of just the purchase and mortgage payments of a home you actually can end up paying double the initial purchase price or close to it over 30 years.

That doesn't account for maintenance or taxes like I said before.

It's not that homes are bad to buy or anything.

But when you look at an investment what is it doing for you over the long-term and what do you need to consider to figure out the all in cost vs benefit.

With a home it's more than just money - it's freedom to do with your living space what you want and a place to raise a family.

Is a residential home the best investment choice in pure dollars - no

But some things are more important than money.

As far as portfolios are concerned - the right one for you builds real wealth over time that will hopefully allow you to stay in your home after you leave work for good.

07/07/2026

Don't buy 2 Indexes and think you'll be fine for life.

I see posts all the time saying they buy VTI and QQQ and that's it.

I've seen portfolios like this plenty of times as well.

Those people haven't seen or have forgotten the tech bubble burst

of the early 2000's or the lost decade in the S&P.

When you're young and you can hang on, it might not be as big of a deal.

But as you get to early retirement or regular retirement you need to adjust your strategy as your life changes.

Diversifying into more than two indexes that track the major

markets like small companies and international are some ideas that

can be helpful over your life.

And most importantly don't forget to make your lifetime tax plan

and your cash flow plan because investing is far less impactful than

the plan that brings all the strategies together to work for you.

07/06/2026

You see the big house and the nice cars.

The things that look like wealth.

Often times what I see are the

- Back taxes owed to the IRS
- Mountains of debt to acquire this lifestyle
- Small to no investment portfolios
- $0 to negative net worth

I've seen it with people who earn fantastic amounts of money.

That being said no amount of income will get you out of a spending problem.

Also don't compare your life to others, you might just be comparing yourself to fake projections.

Define what is meaningful to you and cultivate more of that into your life because no amount of spending will make you happy either.

07/01/2026

If someone try's to sell you an IUL because of tax planning

On the first visit they aren't a financial advisor

They are just selling a product

Most people don't need them and you'd see better benefits doing the simple things.

What you should do instead:

1. Max out retirement savings.

2. 401k (especially the free match), IRA, Roth or Traditional based on your situation, HSA if available.

3. Mega/Backdoor Roth (if this strategy is needed)

4. Complete Roth conversions in low income years or up to the 22-24% tax bracket.

5. Monitor your cash flow.

6. Contribute to your Taxable account (The Opportunity Account.) - Invest tax efficiently.

7. Build significant wealth this way.

8. Have your short and long term financial plan in place.

Then after a few million are built up and you want even more diversification and long-term care protection it could make sense once all other items here are addressed first.

Long-term care can be handled in other ways.

Benefits are only really there for a small percentage of people from what I've seen.

Evan Drury of Gateway Financial Partners

07/18/2026

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