David Mathias, CFP®, MSBA

On March 30, the S&P 500 was down 7% in 2026, the 12th worst start to a year in history. After one of the biggest 4-week rallies ever, it's now up +5% YTD and above the average year at this point in time (+3%). There is no impossible in markets. Video: youtube.com/watch?v=p5e0Th…

Marcus Aurelius wrote this over 1800 years ago: “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.”

The S&P 500 is now down 7.6% from its January peak. Is that a lot? Not at all. This is right in line with the median correction off an all-time high since the March 2009 low. We see a decline of this amount or more during most calendar years. That's the price of admission.

@MarkTMeredith Great graphic, Mark. Are you using target maturity assets (eg bulletshares/iShares, iBonds, etc.) for the short-to-intermediate term bonds portion of your buckets or more standard bond funds? Any resources you drew inspiration from to define your system?

I've always liked the two bucket strategy for retirement spending. It is not perfect, but it is very good.

@excessreturnpod This was a great episode guys

"You can't eat a risk adjusted return. You can't pay bills with risk adjusted returns. You pay bills with total returns." - AQR's Pete Hecht on Portable Alpha

Thank you, Theresa! 🔎 Explore more reviews like this one here 👉 wt.reviews/david-mathias

@RyanPKirlin Does AA have a solution to implement these?

Box spread loans at ~4.5%. beats refinancing student debt/car debt/most debt the old way. If you're an advisor, this is the kind of edge that gets clients talking about you.

@DaveNadig @wjpoulin @TaxAlphaInsider Or rather, “cash” drag, not tax drag

@DaveNadig @wjpoulin @TaxAlphaInsider Couldn’t State Street convert it to an opened ended ETF and fix the tax drag issue and the UIT termination date issue?

Met with an ETF CEO this morning en route to JFK. She said I need to pay closer attention to the time between dividend ex-date and payable date. NAV falls on the ex date, but cash doesn't hit the account until the payable date. She said "you're not invested during the gap". The drag depends on the product and distro magnitude and frequency. I'm always intrigued by hidden costs, hence my obsession with taxation. Should I dig into this? Any especially egregious offenders I should know about?

@DaveNadig @wjpoulin @TaxAlphaInsider Is this required as part of SPY’s UIT structure? If so, this issue would not apply to SPYM, correct?

@wjpoulin @TaxAlphaInsider I mean, the fact that SPY could technically have to hold dividends for a quarter-minus-a-day in CASH doesn't get enough play amongst nerds. Maybe YOU don't care abotu 3% over 10 years... I do. It's 100% guaranteed to lag in an uptrend, year after year since 1993.

Thank you, Franz! 🔎 Explore more reviews like this one here 👉 wt.reviews/david-mathias

At risk of jinxing tomorrow, and angering the market gods, Happy birthday to us both! @RyanDetrick

It is almost time for my favorite stat of the year. October 28 is the best day of the year for the S&P 500 on average. 🙌 It is also my birthday 🎂

@MrNQDC NQDC is generally not available to self-employees business owners, is that correct? What size businesses do you typically see start to employ this structure? Do they need to be C-corps?

After maxing 401k, there’s a hidden lane few talk about Wealthy execs use another type of account to shift income into the future With no IRS cap Compare the pair:

The S&P 500's price to peak earnings ratio has moved up to 27.9, its highest level since 2000 and 62% above the historical median. $SPX Video: youtube.com/watch?v=6xICRo…

The top 10 holdings in the S&P 500 now make up over 39% of the index, the highest concentration on record. Video: youtube.com/watch?v=6xICRo…

@TaxAlphaInsider Are you 100%? How did I not know this??? Good find

This is weird: Mutual fund and ETF distributions of short-term capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. This means net short-term capital gains distributions cannot be offset with capital losses generated by, say, plain 'ole tax-loss harvesting. This seems so foundational that I'm surprised I don't hear about it more often. My blog on this ships tomorrow. Link in profile.

@AdviserCounsel It’s terr ible

Deserving of Cracker Barrel levels of ridicule

@jamesonhaslam The American dream should be a white picket fence and a big deck! Seriously tho 💯 agree. We need ownership and skin in the game in our communities. Get married. Buy a house. Have kids.

a sad thing for me is that young people not buying homes means that they don’t emotionally put down roots and get involved in their community

@TrendingValue Welcome! You’ll be one of the good ones. Lots of people out there need help.

I may become a financial advisor. Wow.