Here are the main things that you need to consider before 2023 comes to an end. It's been a little bit of a crazy year, but luckily markets have performed versus last year. So a lot of you are hopefully a whole lot more relaxed, especially if an early retirement is on the horizon for you. Now, if you're watching this video and in your 30s or 40s, this is going to be really helpful because you're going to know what you need to do so that you every single year can have this checklist. So when you're in your 50s and 60s, you go, hey, I already did a lot of this stuff. Now, if you're listening right now in your 50s and 60s going, hey, what should I do to optimize my retirement? It's still going to be applicable. So I want to make content that can help as many people as possible. Sometimes I will tell you, hey, if you're not,

you know, 50 or 55 or 60, this video could still be informative, but it might not be the most applicable to you. So here's a few other options if you're looking for some content. But today's video is going to be very helpful for everyone. It's just my year-end checklist that I personally go through with my clients. So today, I'm going to go through this, but please know in the link of today's video, meaning in the description, you are going to be able to see the exact checklist. And you can look at it. So if you don't look at it while I'm going to this video, you're more than welcome to. If you want to download it after, that's fine as well. So most of you are watching this right now on

YouTube, but if you are listening to the podcast, of course, I'm going to continue to do the show

on the podcast app. So some of you ask me, hey, are you now only doing it on YouTube? No,

it's going to continue on the podcast app. So iTunes, Spotify, Google, wherever you listen to

your podcast, you are going to continue to get this content there. So do not worry about that. I want to make sure for a lot of you that are following along, if you want to look at what I'm actually looking at, you can go ahead and see that on YouTube. So with that being said, I'm going to go into a quick review of the week. And I'm just looking here on my, if you're listening on the podcast app, I'm just looking down so you can't tell. But if you're watching right now on YouTube, you can tell. I'm just looking. This comes from Brent, DeKalb, D-E-K-A-L-B, who's in Illinois, and he says top-notch, truly one of my favorite financial podcasts. And that's it. So thank you thank you bret my goal and all of you know this by

now it's been a really fun year for me because the feedback i've got from all of you is that you've

really enjoyed the show and it's making you take action and i'm a podcast fan myself i'm also a podcaster

but i want to make content that makes you take action because too often there's a million

strategies with finances people get overwhelmed and they don't take action because too often there's a million strategies with finances

people get overwhelmed and they don't take action and the last thing i want is for you to go i could

have retired a few years earlier and not have worked this stressful job or spent time with family

when i would have loved to just because i didn't plan well enough so i'm not saying that to be

harsh i'm saying that because if you

plan well, you can retire earlier than you can expect or sometimes the feedback is, nope, you have to work a little bit longer, but it's easier to go to work every day because you're doing it because you want to, not because you have to. And that's the difference. So with that being said, most of you know by now, but I'm R.E. Talblieb, a certified financial planner. I love what I get to do,

which is help people just like you optimize an early retirement. Now, I'm not obsessed with an early retirement, but I love the idea that you could spend more time doing what you want to do and not simply working or commuting or waking up early or all these things that you tell me when you download my content. So with that being said, I'm going to hop into the checklist. And the first thing I'm going to do is start with if you have any unrealized investment losses. Now, part of my job I view as a planner, is to advise. But another part of my job is say, here are things that you're going to hear about from a neighbor or friend or coworker. And they do not apply to you so you do not worry about them. Okay, I call it head trash. I want that out of there. There's plenty of life to worry about. I don't need to worry about stuff that's just not applicable to you. So someone might say, hey, did you intentionally realize any losses this year? And people go right off the bat. Wait, are you saying, you know, should I be intentionally only selling something, why would I buy something for 10 bucks and go sell it for five bucks?

Like that's and people go right off the bat. Wait, are you saying, you know, should I be intentionally selling something?

Why would I buy something for $10 and go sell it for $5? Like, that's a bad thing. I'm losing money. And it is, unless you're being intentional with tax strategy. So what I'm going to tell you right now, this only applies if you have a superhero account. Now, some of you are longtime listeners of the show and you know what I'm talking about. some of you go, I've never heard of that account, and that's because I made it up.

The premise is if you want to retire early, you want to have a brokerage account. That's going to help you bridge that gap from the time you retire until 59.5. And in a perfect world, at 59.5, you don't even start touching your IRAs and Roth IRAs, even though you could if you wanted to. With a 401k, you can, of course, tap in at 55 if you elect a rule of 55. But even if you can, I don't really love when you do. And the reason for it is it increases your income, which means we can't do as much of the fun tax strategy that I'm going to talk about. So the first thing I'll ask clients, I'll say, do you have any unrealized investment losses in your taxable account? So if you're listening right now, you've got a 401k and a Roth IRA, no brokerage account, no taxable account, no joint account, which by the way, all mean the same exact thing. The financial industry just tries to make it as confusing as humanly possible. So don't let them get you.

They all mean the same thing, which is it's an account. You can put money in. There's no limit. You don't have to worry about. Do I make too much money? Do I not make enough money? Is it only 30,000 as a maximum contribution? None of that. You don't get a tax benefit. And as the money grows, you can take it out and you pay taxes on the gains, Okay. So the most that you are able to offset against your income is $3,000. What on earth does that mean? What that means is let's assume you bought a stock for $10,000 and it's gone down in value. And now it's worth $7,000. You could go ahead and sell that position. So it's a $3,000 loss and essentially tell the IRS, hey, I want to invest. I want the economy to grow. And this was a loser that I had in my portfolio. But what I want you to know government is that I tried to stimulate the economy. And so I have a $3,000 loss. So are you going to give me any benefit? And they go, yeah, we'll give you a benefit, but only up to 3,000. Anything beyond that, you don't get to use this year. So what this means is $3,000 can be offset against other income that you have. And that's really cool, because it's incentivizing you to invest. Now, let's assume you bought something for 10,000 and it went down to 5,000. Well, now that's 5,000 of losses. You can only use 3,000 this year, but then you can use 2,000

future years. So... and it went down to 5,000. Well, now that's 5,000 of losses. You can only use 3,000 this year,

but then you can use 2,000 future years. So the first thing is, do you have any unrealized investment losses? After that, what I like to do is say, let's take this to level two. So that's level one. Do you have any losses that maybe there's a stock you don't love? And so what you want to do is you want to go harvest that loss. Let's go intentionally sell it, but not just sell it and do nothing. Let's sell it and then maybe buy something else that's going to still put us in a good position to grow over time. Too many people go sell it and then don't do anything. And that defeats the purpose in a lot of ways. So don't do that. The second thing is let's assume you have a hundred positions,

...