Manuka Financial

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Manuka Financial

Navigate life's turning points with confidence. Life is a journey filled with significant milestones and unexpected changes.

Whether you're planning for retirement, managing sudden wealth, or embracing a new chapter, we're here to help guide you.

11/21/2025

A few months ago, Kirsten Ashbaugh, CFP® and I were so excited about a substantial (7 figure) tax savings strategy that we discovered for a client around accelerated charitable giving that we worked late into a Friday night to satisfy our tax/planning nerd minds and validate the numbers and our research. While a finding of this magnitude is very rare and not applicable to most people, we still have not found anyone else talking about tax planning strategies for high income earners around charitable giving in states that limit itemized deductions. (California, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, and Virginia)

And given the combination of a long bull stock market, lots of clients with appreciated positions, and changes to charitable giving with OBBBA beginning in 2026, the timing may be great for accelerated charitable giving before the end of the year.

If you're up for some math over Thanksgiving and live in or serve clients in these states, we detail out a couple of scenarios you may find interesting in our latest blog post:

In our last blog post, we outlined the changes for federal taxes based on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed on July 2, 2025. In this blog post, we’re taking a deeper dive on how high-income residents in certain states—most notably California—can maximize their charitable giving. Th...

07/08/2025

Curious how the new tax laws will impact you?

We've summarized the changes we think will be most relevant to our clients and will reach out to them individually in the coming weeks:

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) makes several parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and introduces significant new tax changes that could affect your retirement, charitable giving, and overall financial plan starting in 2025.

06/03/2025

Want to learn how to protect you identity, but don't have time for a podcast or video? As a follow up to our appearance on the Retirement Planning Education podcast last week, we've updated our Cybersecurity Best Practices blog post.

With the addition of Kirsten Ashbaugh to the team, we’re publishing an updated “best practices” post that takes advantage of her background in intelligence and cybersecurity.

07/11/2024

I had a blast recording a podcast on retirement planning with Andy Panko, CFP®, RICP®, EA. Andy's "Retirement Planning Education" podcast is a goldmine of information for those gearing up for retirement. I may be a little biased, but our discussion easily ranks among Andy's top 107 (out of 107) episodes!

Thank you, Andy, for all you do for the retirement and advisor community. I think the word is a better place with you in it, and it has been a pleasure getting to know you over the last 3 years.

Andy chats with fellow retirement planner Mike Powers, CPA, PFS, CFP®, from Manuka Financial. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as tax planning, distribution strategies, investing, annuities, long-term...

06/03/2024

Want to learn more about TIPS? And not the kind you leave after a meal. I’m referring to Treasury Inflation Protected Securities – a bond investment that adjusts for inflation.

If so, check out my latest blog post: "TIPS for Retirees: A Guide to Inflation-Protected Securities"

Discover how TIPS can protect retirees' investments against inflation, providing security and stability for your retirement portfolio.

11/28/2023

Every New Year’s Eve, my uncle Chris used to sit down at his desk and write checks to the charities he supported in order to be able to deduct them on his tax return that year. While this may not sound like the definition of fun for most people while welcoming the New Year, he was a CPA who specialized in serving non-profits, so it was very fitting for him.

If Chris were still here, I would love to talk with him about charitable gifting strategies. (And yes, I fully realize the boringness of my last sentence.) With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed in late 2017, many things have changed about how to support charities in a tax-efficient manner. The days of writing checks on December 31st may no longer be the best option.

As many people generously open up their wallets today on Giving Tuesday, here are four strategies to consider:

- Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

- Gifting Appreciated Stock

- Charitable “Lumping”

- Donor Advised Funds

Tax efficient ways to give to charity via qualified charitable distributions (QCDs), gifting appreciated stock and donor advised funds (DAF).

10/31/2023

With the recent stock market pullback and interest rates up, negatively impacting the prices of individual bonds and bond funds, should you take any losses before the end of the year?

Thanks to Investopedia for including me in their recent article: "Depending on the answers, tax-loss harvesting can be a great strategy. Or a terrible one," said Michael Powers, a financial advisor with Manuka Financial in Richmond, Va.

Before deciding to harvest any tax losses, the following questions should be asked:

- Are you going to be in a 0% long-term capital gain tax bracket this year? (up to $44,625 of taxable income for single filers or $89,250 for married filing jointly)

- Do you have any short-term gains for the year? (which are taxed at the higher ordinary income tax rates)

- Do you need to worry about any wash-sale rules from purchases of a “substantially identical” investment in any other accounts?

- Are you expecting any large year-end capital gains?

- Are you close to having more of your Social Security benefits taxed or to being phased out of any deductions or tax credits, where your effective tax rate is actually higher than your marginal tax bracket? (child tax credit, child and dependent care credit, American opportunity tax credit, lifetime learning credit, student loan interest deduction, adoption credit, clean vehicle tax credit, etc.)

- Are you expected to be in a lower long-term capital gains tax bracket in future years?

After decades of gains, investment losses for the second straight year have put tax-loss harvesting options into play for bond investors. Financial advisors, though, caution that investors should first consider a wide array of factors when deciding whether to use them.

09/21/2023

Back in April 2022, I was excited about I Bonds. And now I’m excited to sell them soon.

Why?

I Bonds have earned a nice return, but because inflation is down substantially since April 2022 and interest rates are up, better yields are now available to cash them in and reinvest the proceeds.

See below on when to consider selling I Bonds and how to do so.

When and why to sell I Bonds, especially those purchased in April 2022 or around that time. Better alternatives are now available.

09/12/2023

Imagine earning thousands of dollars more in after-tax income using as little as five minutes of your time.

If you’re holding a large amount of cash at Charles Schwab, this article is for you. Their default bank sweep cash option for brokerage and retirement accounts is currently paying only 0.45%. To earn a higher yield, you need to manually invest in a different option.

How to earn higher than the 0.45% default cash option at Charles Schwab. If you’re holding a large amount of cash, this article is for you

04/20/2023

Should you buy more iBonds before the rates reset on May 1st?

Probably not. (although everyone's situation is different)

See below for my thoughts on potentially better alternatives for your excess cash right now.

A number of people have been asking recently “Should I buy more iBonds?” before the rates reset on May 1st.

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3910 W Franklin Street
Richmond, VA
23221

Website

https://manukafinancial.com/

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