Opulus @OpulusLLC

My dad did the responsible thing. He bought life insurance. $250k. Sole earner. 5 young kids. No one ever told him that wasn't close to enough. It's the reason I became a financial planner ↓

Most high earners think the 401(k) limit is $24,500 in 2026. That's just the employee contribution limit. The actual IRS limit is $72,000. The $47,500 gap? One of the most common things we see left on the table. Here's how to access it ↓

Most six-figure earners don't have a budgeting problem. They have a systems problem. Wealthy people don't track every dollar. They build systems that run on autopilot - so the right things happen whether they're watching. 5 systems every high earner needs: ↓

A 15-year-old's summer job can turn into $1.7M by retirement - without them saving a single dollar of their own paycheck. Most parents have never heard of the account that makes this work: ↓

If you're paying for daycare, preschool, or summer camps - there's a tax account most parents never fully use. This past year, it got a 50% upgrade The limit jumped from $5,000 to $7,500 for the first time in 40 years. Here's how it works ↓

"I'm fine with risk, I've never sold in a downturn." Now imagine checking your account every week for years, watching it stay lower than the day you started, wondering if retirement just got pushed back five years. Still fine? Full thoughts on risk tolerance ↓

"Your 401(k) is a scam!" gets repeated constantly online. Here's what it actually looks like: $100,000 salary, contributing just 3% to get a full match, growing at 8% from age 30 to 65. The number at the end might change your mind: ↓

"Save 3-6 months of expenses" gets handed out like it means the same thing for everyone. It doesn't. Someone getting paid every Friday and someone living off two big commission checks a year are not the same emergency fund problem. Here's why: ↓

A new job offer is exciting. It's also the moment most people accidentally leave real money on the table - not from the salary, from everything around it. Here's the full checklist to run through before you say yes: ↓

"You need 10x your salary saved by 67." That number comes from a real model - but the model assumes Social Security replaces roughly 55% of your income. For a high earner, it might only replace 27%. The rule isn't wrong. It's just not about you: ↓

Among people who track their retirement plan closely enough to trust it, 51% say they're more afraid of losing healthy years than losing money. Only 8% said money worried them more. If you've hit your number and still can't spend, here's what's going on: ↓

Roughly 2 in 5 families have never discussed what happens to their money and assets - not because they don't care, but because nobody knows how to start. This isn't a one-way interrogation of your parents. It has to go both directions. Here's how to have it: ↓

Most people pick one retirement account in their 20s and never revisit the decision again. The right mix of tax-free, tax-deferred, and taxable accounts isn't static - it's supposed to shift as your income rises. Here's how the buckets evolve over a career: ↓

A couple with 3 kids, 3 kids-in-law, and 6 grandkids can transfer $456,000 a year, completely tax-free. No trust. No attorney. Often just a simple form, nothing complicated. It's the annual gift tax exclusion, and most families never touch it: ↓

$15,000 balance. $300 minimum payment. $287 of it is interest. Your debt went down $13 this month. That's not a rounding error - it's how minimum payments are designed to work. Here's the real math: ↓

The backdoor Roth IRA caps out at $7,500/year. There's a version that operates inside your 401(k) instead - with room for tens of thousands more per year, tax-free, for life. Most high earners have never heard of the mega backdoor Roth. Here's how it works: ↓

Most financial plans assume one thing: things go smoothly. Steady income. Normal markets. A retirement that starts and ends on schedule. The households that survive real shocks aren't lucky - they stress-tested the plan first. Here are the 9 risks we test for: ↓

Two people each have $500,000 in vested company stock. Same plan: sell $50,000 a year for 4 years to diversify. Same exact set of returns - just in a different order. One ends with $344,500 left. The other ends with $247,538. Same everything else. Here's why: ↓

A 40-year-old man pays $574/month for a whole life policy his agent called "just like a savings account." Five years and $34,440 in premiums later, his cash surrender value: $9,200. Let's tear down what actually happened to the other $25,240: ↓

One of my favorite stories to tell clients: Last year an old man at the gym handed me a book, told me his life story, then said one sentence that changed how I think about wealth entirely. It had nothing to do with money. Everything to do with what happens after it: ↓