What is tax-loss harvesting? Tax-loss harvesting is the practice of selling a security that has experienced a loss and replacing it with a very similar security. The idea is that you will be able to apply these losses against any realized gains or income on your tax return to help lower your tax bill while maintaining an optimal asset allocation. Losses can be indefinitely carried forward and applied to offset future realized gains until they are exhausted.

I know the question you’re probably asking yourself: Can’t I just take a smaller RMD? The answer is no. RMD is just like how it sounds–it is the minimum amount you need to take from your retirement account each year. Bluntly, it’s the IRS’s way of forcing you to take a certain amount of money from your tax-deferred retirement accounts so that they can get their taxes-owed.

The word “option” makes you feel good–it denotes flexibility, choice, and gives you a sense of control. However, those “options” may not be the cherry on top of your sundae, perfectly perched on a pillow of whipped cream. They may actually be the sticky hot fudge that melts your ice cream and turns your masterpiece into a soupy mess.

This classic piece of investment advice is everywhere for a good reason. Spreading your investments across numerous asset classes and sectors reduces your portfolio’s reliance on any particular one. It’s meant to mitigate your loss—if one sector were to decrease, your diversification across multiple sectors can reduce the impact of those losses. There are levels of diversification, too.

If an asset is on the rise, there can be some sense in jumping in on that trend. Those trends, after all, represent the flow of capital. Instead of trying to fight that flow, you might potentially be better off joining it—assuming you do the proper analysis and have specific rules set in your Model to guide you in entering and exiting the investment at an appropriate time.

After years of focusing on building a business, now’s the time to pause and audit your personal financial life. What assets do you have? Liabilities? What kind of income are you accustomed to and how do you spend it? Approach these questions with the same discipline and no B.S. attitude that’s already gotten you this far. Then, map these items out–(we use a “Monument Asset Map”)–so you can see the big picture clearly without overwhelming the senses.

An objective is a specific goal and like the actions you take when you want to reach a personal objective (like figuring out a daily workout routine for when you want to lose weight), money should be a means in order to achieve both long-term or short-term goals.

Many of the best dividend growth stocks don’t have high yields. Let that sink in for a moment. Consider this: when a company pays out a dividend, that’s not free money. On the contrary, it’s less money that goes back into the company which can slow growth down. In fact, high yield could be a sign that there isn’t much growth to be had at all.