New Year, New You? Nope

January is NOT the time to make a big change in your life. Not in Spokane, Deer Park, or Chewelah.

But March is… here’s why:

January tells us it’s time for big changes—but have you noticed how your body just wants to nap and eat carbs? That’s because winter is not the season for major life overhauls. Nature slows down, and so should we.

Instead of forcing yourself into ambitious resolutions when it’s 10 degrees in Eastern WA, embrace the season of rest, reflection, and maybe an extra blanket.

March, on the other hand? That’s go-time.

Spring isn’t just for cleaning out closets—it’s also the ideal time to refresh your finances and set yourself up for a successful year.

With new energy and motivation, here are a few key financial planning habits and projects to tackle this March:

✅ Max Out Retirement Contributions – There’s still time to make 2024 IRA contributions (deadline: April 15!), and you can also boost 2025 savings while you’re at it.

✅ Review Your Tax Return – Instead of just filing and forgetting, use your tax return to spot opportunities—are you missing deductions, need to adjust withholdings, or should you start planning a Roth conversion for 2025? Do you know how the changing tax laws at the end of 2025 will affect you in 2026? Find out here.

✅ Update Your Estate Plan – If it’s been a while since you reviewed your will, beneficiaries, or power of attorney documents, now is a great time to make sure everything is still aligned with your goals – are all those folks still alive and in your good graces?? 🙂 Also, did any of your key decision makers move to a different state? Wrapping up someone’s life long-distance is difficult. Stay local.

✅ Check In on Your Investments – Make sure your War Chest is filled back up if now’s a good time to make that move, give yourself a raise if your advisor gives you the OK, or get some education on which investments will actually help you and not just feel good because of a particular label (ie. conservative, aggressive, etc.).

✅ Refresh Your Budget & Savings Goals – With new energy (and maybe a few holiday spending regrets), spring is a great time to refocus on saving and making sure your money is going where it matters most. It doesn’t all have to be about finances, either. For me this is a great time to start looking for opportunities to play pickleball outdoors in Spokane and Chewelah.

It doesn’t all have to be about finances, either.
For me this is a great time to start looking for opportunities to play pickleball outdoors in Spokane and Chewelah.

Caleb

✅ Tackle Insurance Gaps – Do you have the right life and disability insurance in place? Is your coverage still sufficient? Spring is a great time to revisit these protections.

Winter was for resting. Now it’s time to take action! If you need help putting your financial goals into motion Schedule a Discovery Call right now.

February’s Insights: Taxes

February’s Insights: Taxes

Here’s a quick guide to make sure nothing gets forgotten this year.

In the last year, have you…

📊 Sold or traded investments (in a non-retirement account)?
🏠 Made big moves in real estate?
🎓 Paid tuition or student loans?
💵 Made or received gifts above the annual limit ($18K per person)?
🎁 Donated to charity (cash or non-cash)?
👶 Expanded your family with a little one (hello, tax credits!)?
🧃 Gave your kid $10K to start a ‘business’? That counts.
🪂 Took up skydiving lessons? Ok, maybe not deductible—but memorable!

Here’s the good news: At Deep Creek Financial Planning, we’re testing* a brand-new tax summary letter to help our clients avoid the “Oops, I forgot!” moments. It’s a simple, organized way to remember all those taxable adventures.

We plan to roll out the tax summary letter for every client in 2026 since it takes all year to prepare for it.

Looking for something new we can offer you right now? 🎉

After you file your 2024 taxes, schedule your free Tax Return Review!

We’ll help you dive deeper into your return so you can gain a clearer understanding of your taxes—and where there’s understanding, there’s an opportunity to save. 💡

A Tax Return Review Includes:

  • A clear 2024 summary
  • A 2025-2026 estimate based on current tax law
  • Actionable tax saving strategies!

Your CPA + Deep Creek’s Tax Planning = AMAZING!

Schedule A Tax Return Review!

Behind The Scenes

I always like it when someone gives me the special tour or shares something not everyone knows. If you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes tour of a typical business day for me keep reading.

Here’s my day from Wednesday, Jan. 29th:

  • 6 AM: Wake up, read my Bible / devotional, use the Pause app, and read a chapter of non-fiction
  • 7 AM: Head out to meet Bryan from church for coffee in Spokane
  • 8:30 AM: Workout (and recover with a dip in the hot tub!) at the North Spokane YMCA
  • 9:30 AM:
    • Work from the Y’s co-working space
    • Meeting Prep
    • Edit a press release about WA Saves
    • Invite Christian business owners to join the new Faith Driven Entrepreneur group
    • Think through a client’s complex estate plan, prepare a brief for the estate attorney, and coordinate the implementation of wills, trusts, and business continuity plans
  • 1 PM: Meet Mark, a fellow business owner, for lunch so I can interview him about how his business might serve my clients
  • 2 PM: Head to my office in Deer Park
  • 2:30 PM Client Call: Discuss long-term care solutions with clients from Georgia
  • 4 PM Discovery Call: Get to know a young couple from Spokane and begin discussing their money goals and an inheritance
  • 4:30 PM Discovery Call: Get to know a Deer Park business owner and her husband to discuss their needs to save money on taxes, plan for retirement, and consolidate their investments
  • 5 PM: What I do almost every night (Video) followed by dinner with the family at our home in Deer Park
  • 6:30 PM: Head out to drop off a kid at youth group and then on to Pickleball in North Spokane!

What do all those activities add up to? Helping active retirees and successful business owners LIVE ABUNDANTLY by connecting the dots between family goals and strategic financial planning.

Happy February!

Investment Update – With Pet Photos!

Puppy Mary Sanderson by Hillary Adams

Every quarter we review our investment portfolios and make adjustments as needed. Ever wonder about the WHY behind the WHAT? Here’s how we think at Deep Creek.

Step 1: Invite Outside Perspectives

You see the value in gaining an independent perspective and have asked us to help you invest wisely. We follow our own advice and work to make informed decisions well.

This quarter we requested investment review meetings with two respected asset managers and met with each during the month of September. We reviewed each individual fund, how each fund fit into the broader portfolio, and looked for opportunities to increase the quality of your investments. We found several.

Step 2: Sleep On It

After taking in an outside perspective it’s important to return to the core principles we base our investment philosophy on. This helps us avoid being swayed by those outside perspectives and is similar to the practice we regularly encourage clients to follow: sleep on it.

We review the costs and benefits of each choice we’re considering making, we look for alternative ways to solve any perceived problems, and we take the time needed to make quality decisions.

A recent decision we made was to ask you for help finding a picture of your pet showing us all what it means to “Sleep On It”. Thank you for your help and for all 269 Comments across our page and two local discussion groups! We weren’t expecting to spend the weekend moderating a plethora of pet photos, but it sure was fun!

Zach Thomas from the Deer Park group came in 3rd.

Walter & Candi Kachnik from the Deer Park group came in 2nd. The cat really startled us!

And Hillary Adams from the Chewelah group came in 1st by introducing us to a very cute puppy, Mary Sanderson.

Step 3: Final Checks

Before making any actual changes to portfolios we look at how each change will impact each client. Our goal us to avoid unnecessary taxes and keep everyone’s retirement paychecks still heading their way on time.

And while you may never meet him this is Ryan Z’s time to shine. Ryan is the trading specialist on the Deep Creek team and works remotely from Western Washington. To make sure that Caleb stays focused on your top priorities Ryan steps in to handle all the portfolio rebalancing. Ryan has been in his role for 3 years and helps run a local children’s community theater in his free time since he enjoyed participating in it so many years ago.

October’s Results

With that in-depth and month-long process in mind, what changes are we making?

  1. We are swapping our International Debt ETF out for a Mutual Fund focused on investing in the same regions and areas of the market. Our goals are to increase the quality and lower the risk we’re taking in this area of the portfolio using the differences between these two investment products.
  2. Given the changes in Fixed Income these last 2 years we’re adding an ETF designed to add diversification and move part of each portfolio from Corporate Bonds to Mortgage-Backed Securities.
  3. We lowered the Cash holding of each portfolio from 2% to 1% as this still allows for plenty of liquidity while ever-so-slightly increasing the opportunity for growth.

These are the updates we’ve made to the investment portfolios most of our clients use, but what about our faith-based investors? We follow a similar process for their Biblically Responsible Investment portfolios. No changes were needed this quarter. We do invite you to join us on October 30th for a webinar where we hear directly from Colby Smidt at Eventide Funds on their process for Values-Based Investing.

The Deep Creek Difference

We believe that implementing strategies to grow your wealth create more opportunities for you and your family to make a meaningful impact on the world. Wealth comes from owning businesses and making informed, long-term investments.

Our approach is simple yet powerful: diversify wisely, minimize costs, and always think ahead.

We guide you through the accumulation and distribution phases with tailored strategies that keep your goals in focus—whether it’s building wealth or living with the confidence of a well-stocked War Chest. By avoiding unnecessary taxes, and aligning your investments with your values, we strive to help you grow your financial future without the confusing jargon (except for the confusing jargon we put in these investment updates ABOVE which we give you full permission to ignore completely and the legally required jargon below).

Investing in mutual funds involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Fund value will fluctuate with market conditions, and it may not achieve its investment objective. Rebalancing a portfolio may cause investors to incur tax liabilities and/or transaction costs and does not assure a profit or protect against a loss. There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market risk. ETFs trade like stocks, are subject to investment risk, fluctuate in market value, and may trade at prices above or below the ETF’s net asset value (NAV). Upon redemption, the value of fund shares may be worth more or less than their original cost. ETFs carry additional risks such as not being diversified, possible trading halts, and index tracking errors. Mortgage-backed securities are subject to credit, default, prepayment, extension, market and interest rate risk.