Revisit & Refresh

Hi, Tom here.

You’ll notice this edition looks a little different. We’re adding our Wealth Workshop show to the newsletter. In this week’s show, we talk about the recent market melt-up and answer a few great questions from readers.

This edition is all about the habits and routines that shape your financial life. As you enter your peak earning years and prepare for retirement, the routine that got you here needs to be revisited and often times refreshed.

Let’s dive in.

Watch this week’s Wealth Workshop:

Have a question that you want answered? Submit them here

Want to join live on Tuesday mornings? Register here

“Your credit card fee will now be $795.”

A few weeks back, my brother-in-law texted me that the credit card we both use, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, was going to be “relaunched” with new features, new partnerships, and a higher fee.

That fee?

$795.

The fee went up 44%, with nothing more than an email notification and a press release from Chase.

When I got this text, I was annoyed. I knew how it was going to be spun, and it was one more reminder of how tightly our lives are wrapped into a financial system that rarely asks for permission before changing the rules.

My first thought was to cancel the card. Then I quickly thought through what that would entail:

• Updating all the auto-pays

• Researching new cards

• Canceling this one

• Dealing with the headache

The inconvenience of that also felt annoying.

And Chase knows this.

Sure, there could be “thousands of dollars in partnership value and travel points,” but $800 just to use a credit card, combined with the fact that you practically need a PhD in data science to understand the new points system?

C’mon now.

With just one text message, I felt my personal financial life run straight into the wall of the “System.”

The financial system is massive.

I’ve been in the wealth management business for nearly 12 years. I’ve worked at a Swiss bank, a private equity-backed firm, and launched Fjell Capital five years ago. I’ve helped build our company’s infrastructure from the ground up and served hundreds of families along the way. And still, there are things I learn that genuinely surprise me about the system, whether good or bad.

Life as we know it depends on it.

Everything you do is somehow tied into it:

• Your auto pay at work

• Your lunch bill at our favorite spot

• Your 401(k)

• Your auto insurance

You cannot run from it or hide from it. It is almost infinitely bigger than you or me.

Love it or hate it, that’s how it works.

The financial system, and how you relate to it, is simply the place you go to spend, invest, and protect your financial matters.

I’ve written about this in the past, but I always think of the financial system as a grocery store. You walk in, there are people everywhere, deals to be had, tens of thousands of products to choose from, a clerk or two stocking shelves, and you're left to figure out what you need to buy.

You have a general idea of what you want each time you visit. There are the things you always buy, and every so often, you’ll splurge on something or change it up.

Each aisle represents a choice: banks, credit cards, insurance, retirement accounts, investment funds.

Every decision shapes your financial future.

Some aisles lead to better outcomes, while others quietly drain your resources year after year. Sure, there is help around, but it’s mostly up to you.

The choice is immense. Opportunity and risk are in every aisle.

But here is the catch...

Most of us shop on autopilot.

We picked our financial ingredients years ago, sometimes even decades ago, and haven't revisited them since.

We assume our recipe still works because it’s comfortable, familiar, and easy. And for many, it has worked. But here’s the reality check: things change beneath the surface, even if your life, career, income, or spending hasn’t.

• Interest rates change, and your cash might be earning less interest than it could elsewhere.

• Your 401(k) might be stuck in an outdated fund that no longer matches your retirement timeline.

• Your insurance policy might be with the least competitive carrier in your market.

There was an interesting Barron’s article recently about the cost of human capital in AI.

As you know, AI engineers are being paid like all-star NBA players right now, led by Meta. In the article, the author mentioned how Zuckerberg is taking a page from Intel’s third CEO, Andy Grove. Grove said:

Now, your personal financial life isn’t Intel, and you probably don’t share Grove's level of paranoia.

But the principle is valuable. A healthy skepticism about your financial setup is essential, especially as you move through the transformative financial years in your 50s and 60s.

Unhealthy skepticism sounds like this:
“Everyone is out to get me, nothing works, the world is burning, etc.”

Healthy skepticism sounds like this:

• “I deeply believe in the stock market, but let me double check the companies I own and check in on their future prospects.”

• “I trust my bank, but I’ll review my interest rates now and then.”

• “I trust my insurance carrier, but I’ll verify my premiums are competitive.”

Small actions such as phone calls, quick online reviews, or short meetings can significantly improve your financial outcomes.

They turn a recipe that’s good enough into one that is optimized for your future.

And just so you know, I’m not preaching from a pulpit.

I do this for a living, and I still get tripped up in my own routine.

I’ve had the same credit card since 2016. It’s been on autopilot. I’ve paid it in full every month, used the points to go to Europe, and never thought much about it.

It’s been a great tool in my family’s financial life.

But a 44% fee hike and a list of new “features” had my wife and me questioning our recipe.

It reminded me of something essential: the system isn’t built to optimize itself for me. That’s my job.

As the stock market continues to melt up, the Fed decides on interest rate policy, and you move closer—or deeper—into retirement, remember that small inefficiencies compound over time.

Great retirements are built by doing the little things well.

The system simply exists. It’s our job to read the labels, hire great teams, and move forward with confidence.

See you around,
Tom