davidtreece-clientsexcel

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:21:01 GMT

We were chomping at the bit to move into our new office a couple of weeks ago...

After unexpectedly having to leave our leased space, we had been in limbo for a while.

The contractors are still putting the finishing touches on everything, but one thing has stood out to me: There is a lot of precise measuring involved in installing flooring, wainscoting, crown molding, and just about everything else.

If something is even an inch or two off, you can end up with an eyesore that drives you nuts!

Some Miscalculations Are More Costly

Fortunately, most small miscalculations in life are not disastrous. Forgetting to make the bed or take out the trash probably will not change the course of your future.

But miscalculating how much income you will need in retirement can have much greater consequences.

If you underestimate your expenses, you may withdraw too much from your investments. If you overestimate them, you may unnecessarily delay retirement or live more cautiously than needed.

That is why determining a realistic retirement budget is one of the most important steps in preparing to retire.

Will Your Retirement Income Be Enough?

During our working years, it can be easy to become relaxed about spending. Another paycheck is usually coming in a week or two.

Retirement changes that.

Instead of receiving a paycheck from an employer, you may need to create your own income from Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts and other savings. In many ways, you become your own pension manager and your plan may need to last 30 years or longer.

Without knowing what your lifestyle actually costs, it is difficult to answer some of retirement’s biggest questions:

When can I reasonably retire?

How much income will I need each month?

How much can I safely withdraw?

How should my retirement accounts be invested?

Could a major market decline disrupt my plans?

Giving Every Dollar a Job

Once we understand your income needs, we can begin assigning different roles to your retirement savings.

Money needed for near-term expenses may need to be positioned more conservatively. Money that will not be needed for several years may remain invested for potential long-term growth and to help address inflation.

This type of planning may also make market downturns easier to navigate. When near-term income needs have been considered in advance, you may feel less pressure to sell long-term investments during an unfavorable market.

The goal is not simply to invest for today. It is to build a strategy around when you will need the money and what you need it to accomplish.

Are You Within Five Years of Retirement?

When we first enroll in a 401(k), most of us select a few investments, begin contributing and hope the account grows over time. That may work well during our accumulation years.

However, when we get within approximately five years of retirement, the questions begin to change. It is no longer just, “How much have I saved?”

The more important question becomes, “How will these savings help provide the income I need throughout retirement?”

If you are approaching retirement and are unsure how much your desired lifestyle will cost or whether your current investments are positioned to support it, we would be glad to help you work through those questions.

Call us at 864.641.7955 or email us at hello@clientsexcel.com to request a Retirement Income Review.

Until next week,

David C. Treece,

Financial Planner

Never Seems to Stop

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:47:20 GMT

Global crisis & market volatility have felt like the new norm...

Summer Is Flying By

The summer break is winding down. I remember years when school didn't start until after Labor Day, and now Amelia goes back in less than a month while Ansley starts K-4!

I suppose it balances out, though. They enjoy more breaks throughout the school year even with a shorter summer.

When I was a kid, sitting still in a classroom for hours felt like a challenge, so the end of summer often felt more like a punishment than anything else!

Market Headlines Never Seem to Stop

This week, I recorded another podcast episode with Andy, our producer, and we discussed an important question:

At what point should investors become concerned

about market downturns or corrections?

It's a worthwhile question because the headlines never seem to let up.

Recently, The Wall Street Journal published a headline that read, "How to Invest When the Global Crisis Never Stops." That certainly captures how many people feel.

The 2020s have already delivered their share of uncertainty. We experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, the highest inflation in decades, rapidly rising interest rates, and in 2022 the S&P 500 declined 18.11%. Then, over the next two calendar years, the market posted returns exceeding 25% each year.

Talk about whiplash.

Focus on the Plan, Not the Panic

So how should we respond when the economy or markets become unsettled?

While none of us can control the markets, we can control how we prepare.

One of the most important planning exercises is understanding your monthly spending needs. Inflation has increased the cost of living for many families, making it even more important to know what it takes to maintain your lifestyle.

Once we understand your spending needs, we can estimate how much may be covered by Social Security and then evaluate how your investment portfolio might help support the remaining income needed throughout retirement.

Rather than reacting to headlines, a thoughtful financial plan gives us a framework for making decisions regardless of the current news cycle.

Why We Use Different Buckets of Money

For many clients who are within five years of retirement or already retired, we often discuss dividing investments according to their intended purpose.

In our office, we refer to one portion as "Blue Money."

These assets are generally intended to provide stability and serve as a potential source for retirement income distributions during periods of market volatility. Depending on a client's circumstances, we may allocate several years of anticipated retirement spending to this portion of the portfolio.

The remainder, which we call "Red Money," is generally invested with a longer time horizon in mind. Its objective is long-term growth and helping investments keep pace with inflation over time.

Every client's situation is unique, but separating investments based on purpose can help create a clearer framework for making financial decisions.

Begin With the End in Mind

One of my favorite principles comes from Stephen Covey's classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People : "Begin with the end in mind."

I believe that's a valuable mindset for financial planning as well.

Rather than investing based solely on what appears attractive today, it can be helpful to build a plan around where you want to be five, ten, or even twenty years from now.

We've all known people who live paycheck to paycheck—the money is gone before the month is over, and the cycle repeats itself. Investing is certainly different from paying monthly bills, but approaching your investments without a long-term plan can also lead to reactive decisions.

A clear strategy doesn't eliminate uncertainty, but it can provide perspective when markets become volatile.

If you're looking for help developing a goals-based investment strategy or creating a retirement income plan, I'd be happy to talk with you. 864.641.7955

Until next week,

David C. Treece,

Financial Planner

Less Talking, More Leading

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:57:02 GMT

The new Federal Reserve Chairs opinions on forecasting...

A Week in Bavaria and a Lesson in Leadership

Last week was a big week for our family. We traveled farther from home than I've ever been and spent the week in Munich, Germany.

From the ancestry research I've done, much of my family on both sides comes from that area of the world.

It was somewhat surreal to think that if I had been born a few hundred years earlier, I might have lived there. It was also fascinating to see cathedrals that date back to the 1400s and to experience a place so rich in history.

We had the opportunity to tour two of King Ludwig II's palaces in the Alps.

Toward the end of our trip, we took an overnight excursion into Austria and visited Lake Eibsee on the way back, a beautiful alpine lake known for its crystal-clear water and breathtaking scenery.

The girls did remarkably well. We're always surprised by how resilient they are when we travel. We decided not to bring a stroller on this trip since Ansley hasn't used one in quite a while. Mallory kept us on a pretty ambitious schedule all week, and Ansley held her own. She may have even done better than me.

Less Talking, More Leading

While we were overseas, the financial markets were closely watching the Federal Reserve and its newly appointed chairman.

Kevin Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor during the Global Financial Crisis, has been critical of the constant commentary and forecasting that has become common practice at the Fed over the past several decades.

As First Trust recently noted:

"Warsh doesn't like the intense form of 'forward guidance' that's evolved at the Fed, where it treats the markets and the economy like some sort of young child that is always on the verge of a tantrum and needs to be placated. Instead, Warsh wants the Fed to make it clear that it will pursue its definition of price stability and let the markets focus on the economy rather than constantly trying to predict how the Fed will react."

Traditionally, Federal Reserve governors provide their opinions about where interest rates may be headed after meetings. Investors then analyze those comments, and markets often react accordingly.

At the meeting last week, Warsh chose not to participate in those forecasts.

He believes that publicly projecting future decisions can sometimes box the Fed into a path that may no longer be appropriate if circumstances change.

In other words, leaders should have the flexibility to adapt when new information becomes available.

There may be a lot of wisdom in that approach.

The Danger of Always Having an Opinion

Always having an opinion can be exhausting.

In today's world, it often feels like everyone is expected to have an immediate reaction to every headline, every market move, and every economic development. Yet some of the best decisions come from thoughtful observation rather than constant commentary.

At its recent meeting, the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged as policymakers continue to monitor inflation and the economic impact of rising energy prices related to the conflict in the Middle East.

Whether you agree with the decision or not, there is value in allowing facts to develop before rushing to conclusions.

What It Means for Investors

My hope is that a more measured approach from policymakers ultimately contributes to a more stable investing environment.

When decision-makers constantly communicate every possible future action, markets often react to the commentary rather than the underlying fundamentals.

In my observation, that can contribute to unnecessary volatility.

Perhaps with less speculation and less focus on predicting the next move from the Federal Reserve, investors can spend more time focusing on what truly matters: building and maintaining a sound long-term strategy.

That's certainly our hope.

If you're feeling uncertain about your investment strategy or simply want to talk through recent events, we're here to help.

Until next week,

David C. Treece,

Financial Planner

864.641.7955

4 X 4 Grass I never Forgot

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:49:39 GMT

How Responsibility has shaped my life... even from a young age...

When Responsibility Becomes Heavy

A couple of years ago, we took a CliftonStrengths assessment, which is designed to identify your natural strengths.

The idea is that it captures a person's natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving and then highlights your top five strengths. They could be things like Communication, Achiever, Competition, or Learner.

Do you think any of those were in my top five?

Nope.

My number one strength was Responsibility .

Honestly, that sounded pretty lame to me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it explained a lot about how I'm wired.

I have what feels like an innate need to make sure things happen. The thought of forgetting something or not getting something done is genuinely stress-inducing.

Thankfully, this has worked out pretty well in my line of work because people depend on us to help them figure out their retirement plans and manage their money. I literally tell my team that their number one job is to help me remember things.

I've never really looked into it, but I do wonder if some of my tendencies toward responsibility were learned from my parents.

Watching Amelia

Amelia, our eight-year-old, has developed a new habit.

She'll brush her teeth. I'll hear her brush her teeth. She'll finish brushing her teeth. Then she'll come find me and ask whether I think she did a good job or whether she needs to brush them again.

It's gotten me wondering if she's observing how hung up I can get on details and is beginning to adopt some of those same tendencies. I don't know if that's actually how it works, but it has certainly made me think.

The Lawn Mowing Lesson

I may have naturally been wired to not pay much attention to details, but that tendency was pretty quickly bred out of me with one of my first lawn mowing jobs.

I wanted some extra money as a kid, so my dad's solution was for me to go ask the single lady next door if I could mow her yard. She had a difficult time keeping up with it, and I'm sure my dad hated looking at how overgrown it had become. So, it was probably a win-win for him. I made some money, and he no longer had to look at the neighbor's yard.

Pretty smart.

The neighbor agreed, and when I walked around to the back of her property, I realized that we had only thought her yard looked bad in the front. The backyard was a jungle.

I spent a couple of hours mowing and weedeating, but there was one section, probably four feet by four feet, where the grass was especially tall. I can still remember the conversation I had with my pre-teen self:

"She must have wanted that patch to stay high. I'll just leave it."

What I didn't anticipate was my dad conducting a quality control inspection.

I took the mower and weedeater back home and went inside. My dad walked over to inspect the yard. I was back outside faster than I care to admit.

I hacked and hacked at that patch of grass until it looked like the rest of the yard.

That experience taught me a lesson I have never forgotten:

When you take on a responsibility, you see it through to the end.

Learning What Isn't Mine to Carry

Looking back on my early years as a financial advisor, I can see now that I often took responsibility for things that were never really mine to control.

I felt responsible for whether clients stuck with their financial plans. I felt responsible for how investments performed. I felt responsible for outcomes that were influenced by countless factors outside of my control.

Over time, I've learned that there is a difference between being responsible and believing you are responsible for everything.

Ironically, learning to let go of some of those things made me a better advisor and a healthier person.

A Good Reminder

It's a good reminder that none of us control everything.

We do the best we can. We make thoughtful decisions. We hope for the best. And when life changes, we make course corrections.

But at some point, we have to let go of what I call "responsibility perfection."

Are you trying to manage more than you feel like you can?

If you'd like help sorting through the many moving pieces of retirement planning, we're only a phone call away at 864.641.7955.

Until next week,

David C. Treece,

Financial Planner

America's Kudzu Problem

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:35:02 GMT

& the other problem that's been spreading for generations...

Renovations, Patience, and a Hill Covered in Kudzu

Renovations are coming along at the new office we purchased last month. I have to admit, it's been a big exercise in patience! But the end will come sooner or later, and we know it's going to be a positive long-term move for our firm and our clients.

Behind the office is a steep hill. I couldn't tell you the grade because it's completely covered in kudzu. You know the vine I'm talking about. It's the bright green plant that grows rapidly and takes over everything if left unchecked.

I've been daydreaming about the day it's transformed into a beautifully landscaped hillside. Until then, we'll have to keep mowing the kudzu back.

The thing about kudzu is that once it's established, removing it takes a tremendous amount of work and persistence. And just when you think you've gotten rid of it, another vine creeps across the grass and wraps itself around anything in its path.

As I stood looking at that hillside over the Independence Day weekend, I couldn't help but think of another problem that has quietly spread for generations.

America's Debt Didn't Start Here

Over the holiday weekend, I came across a Newsweek article discussing the history of America's national debt.

According to historical data from the U.S. Treasury, America first recorded a national debt in the late 18th century when the nation's first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, consolidated the country's obligations through the Funding Act of 1790.

The original debt totaled $71 million was about $2.6 billion in today's dollars. It was largely the result of borrowing to finance the Revolutionary War.

Hamilton famously referred to the Revolutionary War debt as "the price of liberty" and believed that a national debt, "if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."

I doubt he could have imagined that less than 250 years later, America would be staring down approximately $39.4 trillion in debt.

The Kudzu Kept Growing

A few decades later, President Andrew Jackson believed indebtedness was a fundamental threat to freedom and paid off the national debt in 1835. Did you know this remains the only time in our nation's history that America has been debt-free?

The reprieve didn't last long.

During the Civil War, the national debt surpassed $1 billion for the first time and reached nearly $3 billion by the war's end. World War I accelerated borrowing once again.

Following World War II, however, something remarkable happened. According to the U.S. Treasury, debt as a percentage of our economy declined for decades thanks largely to strong economic growth.

By 1981, the national debt crossed the $1 trillion mark. President Reagan warned that this milestone should serve as a wake-up call. Think about that for a moment. It took our country nearly 200 years to accumulate the first trillion dollars of debt, but only three years to add the second trillion.

America experienced its last balanced federal budget during the 1990s. As the Newsweek article points out, debt growth slowed during that period, due in part to a balanced budget under President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately, debt began climbing again following the September 11 attacks and the wars that followed.

You probably remember the rest of the story.

The debt surpassed $10 trillion during the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, what once seemed unimaginable became reality when approximately $4.2 trillion was added to the national debt in a single year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has repeatedly said that his strategy is to grow America's economy faster than the debt grows, making the debt more manageable over time. I certainly hope he's right. But when you look at the numbers on usdebtclock.org , it's hard not to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge.

Like the kudzu behind our office, the national debt didn't become this large overnight. It grew slowly, year after year, until today it seems almost impossible to imagine what removing it would even look like.

So, What Does This Mean for You?

I'm not sharing this to create fear or to make a political statement. None of us controls Congress or the federal budget. What we can control is how we prepare.

One of my concerns is that if lawmakers don't address our long-term fiscal challenges, taxes may eventually have to increase.

While that would most likely affect everyone, it could have an even greater impact on retirees and those approaching retirement who have accumulated significant assets in tax-deferred accounts such as traditional 401(k)s and IRAs.

Those accounts have provided valuable tax deductions during our working years, but every dollar withdrawn in retirement is generally taxed as ordinary income.

That doesn't make them bad savings tools. In fact, they have helped millions of Americans save for retirement. But they do raise an important planning question.

Should some of those dollars eventually be moved into tax-free accounts?

Planning Now

For some people, contributing to a Roth 401(k) instead of a traditional 401(k) may make sense. Others who are nearing retirement or already retired may benefit from evaluating whether converting a portion of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is appropriate.

A Roth conversion isn't right for everyone, but when it makes sense, it allows you to pay taxes at today's rates so future qualified withdrawals can be tax-free.

The point is this: we can't control the national debt, but we can control how prepared we are if tax laws change in the future.

If you'd like to discuss whether a Roth conversion analysis makes sense for your situation, simply reply to this email or give us a call at 864.641.7955 . We'd be happy to help you evaluate your options.

Until next week,

David C. Treece,

Financial Planner