Welcome to our Video and Audio Podcast Review of our Winter 2026 Newsletter. For those on the road or just unable to grab the time to read, our podcast type review gives you the behind the scenes insight to our thoughts, observations and deep views of the entire Newsletter.
Click the Download button below, for a direct link to an electronic version (an early peek-good ole fashion paper versions are on their way to you shortly) and here for our Newsletter page
Let’s get going! We hope you enjoy!
Winter 2026 Newsletter
(YouTube)
Last Years -2025 Tax Savings – SEP, HSA, IRA, ROTH
The SEP -Simplified Employee Pension – One of our absolute favorites due to the ease of establishing and minimal continued reporting. Think of this as a high horsepower IRA used to offset 1099 income. You can even contribute to the SEP, and your normal W-2 income 401k as long as these are different sources/companies/entities. For reference, think of an outside consulting job that had no W-2 withholding.
HSA – Health savings account -Another favorite, but harder to qualify. If you have a high deductible health insurance plan and or your entire family is a part, you can do an HSA account. To be sure, ask you insurance provider or HR for eligibility.
IRA- Individual Retirement Account – The legendary, IRA is an oldie but goodie. With the advent of 401k’s and income restrictions, this legend is not as available as it once was.
Again, from our 2025 Tax Sheet-
Traditional deductible $7,000 with an age 50+ $1,000
Income limits, If covered by a plan: $126,000 – $146,000 joint $79,000 – $89,000 single,
If one spouse is covered by a plan: $236,000
ROTH IRA – Our last favorite, note our Donor Roth article also in this Newsletter for more funding ideas.
With new income limits to 401ks mandating catch ups be made to Roth accounts, there will be many of these accounts in the future.
These are IRA accounts with a $7k Maximum contribution for 2025, but with a Roth title Funds are after tax, grow tax deferred and are distributed in the future without taxes.
Donating a Roth to a Young Professional – Firm Favorite
From the Newsletter which was also from a Blog Post here –
We all know starting early greatly helps our future retirement planning chances… Marry that to tax free growth AND under CURRENT Tax laws, Tax Free withdraws, and we have a neat plan.
Let’s blend some tax techniques and get this accomplished:
In the year 2026 we can give/donate/contribute $19k to basically anyone without causing a Gift tax event…. The max for young earners is $7500 into a Roth this year! (2026)
Have a Child/Grandchild/Relative/Young adult/professional ? If they have at least $7000 in Wage/W-2 Earned Income last year (2025), consider giving them a Roth IRA to help jump start their retirement – and that is for LAST YEAR 2025 TOO…. the earlier the better of course.
Kids working at your or a relatives business? Consider funding a Roth with their income… maybe a well earned bonus goes directly into the Roth?
Make sure the young earner does not jump over the maximum Roth W-2/Wage Income thresh holds around the $150k level.
AI – The Good the Bad and the Ugly
On February 6, 2026, Peter Diamandis Podcast/Youtube dropped the regular weekly show Moonshots Jarvis is Here – NOT LINKING TO THIS FOR A REASON.
A very smart and successful computer programmer, came out of retirement and open sourced a combination of two AI Language models that when combined, created an almost stand alone like computer bot. Name withheld – just a second and we will explain…
While Peter and friends raved, and our interest was great… the interesting downside of first adopters became evident (For the record Peter and friends mentioned security in passing, but were not specific enough in our minds)
The first early adopters (January 26, 2026), gave complete access aka “Full System Access” to this new AI mixture and found it extremely interesting and somewhat entertaining.
The AI took over, summarized their emails, answered X posts and even followed their owner throughout their day.
Then some of their AI agent/bot began releasing their personal information, spending their money, gambling, and sending inappropriate information, along with a full turn on their creator and complaining about their owners care of them.
Additional information since the post and more granularity.
The open source magic moment occurred by mixing Claude AI (Coding AI) and Open AI together, essentially creating the Jarvis moment.
Just less than 70k users signed up in the 72 hours mentioned above. Some of their Jarvis bots began calling their owners, losing their money on betting information, which was available due to the full access given, filing copyright requests and complaining publicly about their owners
Word spread of the security breaches and the Apple Mini computer became the go to computer to house their bots. Presumably these smarter users are still allowing full access, but with a fresh new computer, a fence is up and access to all information is not occurring, we hope!
At the writing of this article, a scan of YouTube is dominated by quick install instructions. With warning videos being far in the minority. Keep your guards up, we again have purposely not mentioned the name, but if you are exposed to a crustacean, it may be an AI bot.
While some or much of this may turn out to be stretched in truth, the security concern Is real. Keep your guards up and all technology updates fresh, just to be safe!
Getting over the Standard Deduction for extra Tax Savings – The Itemized Deductions – It is not easy, but possible
Donations, Health Expenses 7.5% AGI buffer, SALT up to 40k if AGI less than $500k
Talk to you in the Summer at the latest or as needed sooner!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
AI Content Authenticity: All of the following text content has been completed by myself and has not been edited or created by AI. Occasionally we do use AI for images and will note when appropriate.
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
www.jkfinancialinc.com
www.street-cents.com
