IMC Financial Consulting

IMC Financial Consulting We offer a holistic comprehensive services to help clients prioritize and attain their life goals by making smart financial decisions.

10/09/2026

Most households have never written down their net worth.

Assets minus liabilities. What you own, minus what you owe. That is the whole formula.

The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances puts median U.S. household net worth at $192,900. The mean is $1,063,700. The gap between those two numbers tells you how concentrated wealth is at the top of the distribution.

Tracking your own net worth, even once a year, gives you a feedback loop that income tracking alone cannot provide. A pay raise that gets spent does not show up as wealth. Consistent investing at any income level does.

Source: Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances (2022)

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Social Security's 2027 cost-of-living adjustment will be announced on October 14.Current projections: around 3.5%.What t...
10/08/2026

Social Security's 2027 cost-of-living adjustment will be announced on October 14.

Current projections: around 3.5%.

What that means in practice: a $1,800 per month benefit would increase by roughly $63 per month, or $756 for the year. A $2,500 per month benefit would go up approximately $87.50 per month.

The adjustment uses the average CPI-W for July, August, and September 2026. It takes effect with the January 2027 payment.

COLA exists to hold purchasing power steady. Whether it actually does that depends on what you are spending money on.

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MLB's Division Series is underway, and the postseason pool is one of the most misunderstood pieces of a professional ath...
10/07/2026

MLB's Division Series is underway, and the postseason pool is one of the most misunderstood pieces of a professional athlete's income.

MLB announces a total postseason pool each year. Teams vote internally on how to divide their share, including partial shares and cash awards.

In 2025, the pool was nearly $128.2 million. A full share for the champion Dodgers was $484,748.

The 2026 numbers will be confirmed after the World Series, which starts October 23.

The financial trap: that income is taxable at ordinary rates, in the year it is paid, on top of regular-season salary. Without planning, a significant portion disappears to taxes, and what remains often gets absorbed into spending rather than a long-term financial picture.

Windfall income needs a plan. That is true for athletes and non-athletes alike.

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39 states now require personal finance education before students graduate high school.The Council for Economic Education...
10/06/2026

39 states now require personal finance education before students graduate high school.

The Council for Economic Education's 2026 Survey of the States, released March 18, 2026, found four newly mandating states: California, Colorado, Delaware, and Hawaii. That reaches an estimated 2.3 million high school students.

Progress is happening. The gap for everyone who graduated before it was a requirement is still there.

Source: CEE, Survey of the States 2026

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The September jobs report: 29,000 jobs added, and the unemployment rate sits at 4.2%.Healthcare added 17,000 jobs and ma...
10/06/2026

The September jobs report: 29,000 jobs added, and the unemployment rate sits at 4.2%.

Healthcare added 17,000 jobs and manufacturing added 9,000.

1.9 million Americans have now been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Long-term unemployment is where financial plans take the most damage: emergency reserves run dry, insurance lapses, retirement savings stall.

This is a good time to stress-test your own plan. What would six months of job search look like, financially?

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2, 2026

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10/02/2026

Your credit report is not your credit score.

The report is the full history. Every account, every payment, every inquiry. Three versions: one per bureau.

The score is a three-digit number calculated from that history.

Why it matters: 1 in 5 Americans has at least one error on their credit report (FTC study, the most comprehensive government research on this). An error in the history can lower your score without you knowing why.

You can pull all three reports (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) free, every week, at AnnualCreditReport.com. That became a permanent right in September 2023.

Read the report. Then look at the number.

Sources: FTC (2013); AnnualCreditReport.com policy (September 2023).

Your beneficiary designation overrides your will.Not a theory. Settled law. When a beneficiary form and a will conflict,...
10/01/2026

Your beneficiary designation overrides your will.

Not a theory. Settled law. When a beneficiary form and a will conflict, courts enforce the form. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling (Egelhoff v. Egelhoff) confirmed this for ERISA-governed retirement accounts.

A 2026 survey found 64% of parents had no designation in place on retirement accounts or life insurance.

The most common problems: an ex-spouse still named, a deceased parent listed with no backup, or a minor child named directly.

October is National Financial Planning Month. Take 10 minutes and check your 401(k), IRA, life insurance, and any transfer-on-death accounts.

Sources: Kiplinger/Morning Consult, 2026; Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U.S. 141 (2001).

15.7% of former NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement.Not because they earned too little. Becaus...
09/30/2026

15.7% of former NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement.

Not because they earned too little. Because the plan did not match the window.

NFL careers are short. The average career for a player who makes an opening-day roster runs about six years. That is the window to build a financial life that lasts 40 or 50 years beyond it.

Lifestyle inflation, irregular endorsement income, and the cost of a large support network all work against the plan if it is not in place from the start.

The athletes who keep the wealth build differently, not just earn more.

Source: Carlson, Kim, Lusardi & Camerer (2015), National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper No. 21085.

$4.4 billion in Pell Grants went unclaimed in 2024.48.6% of high school graduates that year never filed the FAFSA, and t...
09/30/2026

$4.4 billion in Pell Grants went unclaimed in 2024.

48.6% of high school graduates that year never filed the FAFSA, and the most common reason was that families thought they would not qualify.

Filing is free. It does not lock you into anything. It tells you what aid exists and what you are eligible for. Many families who assume they earn too much still receive grants, state funding, and better loan terms.

The 2026-2027 FAFSA is open now.

Source: National College Attainment Network, April 2025.

09/25/2026

One of the most consequential financial decisions most people make does not happen at a big life event. It happens when they switch jobs.

When you leave an employer, your 401(k) balance does not just follow you. You have to decide what to do with it. And the default choice, cashing it out, is usually the most expensive.

If you are under 59 and a half, cashing out means paying income tax on the full amount plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty. A $20,000 account could end up netting you $12,000 or less after taxes and penalties.

Rolling it to an IRA is usually the cleanest option. More investment choices, no fees tied to your old employer's plan, and you stay in control of where it goes.

There is one thing to know before you do anything: check your vesting schedule. If your employer's match has a 3-year cliff, and you are leaving at 2.5 years, you leave some of the match behind.

And when you make the move: always request a direct rollover from institution to institution. If your old plan sends you a paper check instead, you have 60 days to re-deposit it into a qualifying account. Miss that window and the IRS treats it as a distribution.

This is the kind of decision that looks simple on the surface and costs people real money when they do not know the rules.

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