The Real Planning Window Just Opened
The real planning window just opened — here’s what’s actually on the calendar.
I turn 50 this month. It’s a strange milestone to sit with, and an even stranger one to realize applies directly to something I’ve spent years advising other people on. Starting this year, my own catch-up contributions have to go in as Roth, after-tax, no exceptions — the same rule I wrote to you about back in August. It’s one thing to explain a rule change to clients. It’s another to watch it show up in your own paycheck. It’s a good reminder that none of this is theoretical — the calendar catches up with all of us eventually.
August was about pausing before the pace picked back up. September is where the pace actually starts. This is the real planning window — the one where the decisions made now, while there’s still runway before December, tend to matter the most:
- If you’re turning 73 this year, your first required minimum distribution is due. The deadline for most RMDs is December 31, but first-time filers get a one-time extension to April 1 of the following year — which sounds like a grace period until you realize it means two distributions, and two tax hits, in the same year if you wait. Worth confirming your specific deadline now, not in November.[1]
- Roth conversions have a real advantage to converting before year-end, not after: it locks in this year’s tax bracket rather than gambling on next year’s. Once December closes the books, that window closes with it.
- Open enrollment season is starting, and FSA dollars don’t roll over. If you’ve got unused flexible spending account funds sitting from earlier this year, this is the month to actually plan how to use them — not the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when it’s too late to do it thoughtfully.
- The Fed held rates steady again this week — the sixth consecutive hold at 3.50%–3.75%, with the Committee citing inflation that remains elevated, driven partly by energy costs.[2] For anyone holding cash or short-duration instruments, that means the favorable yield environment from earlier this year is still intact — for now. Worth revisiting where that cash is actually sitting.
None of this needs to happen today. But this is the month where naming it actually changes how the next ten weeks go.
I’ll be honest: turning 50 has made me think more about the plan than usual this year — not because anything’s wrong, but because milestones have a way of doing that. If you’ve had a similar moment recently, a birthday, an anniversary, a number that made you pause, that’s usually a good sign it’s worth a conversation.
If something on this list applies to you — an RMD you haven’t confirmed, a conversion you’ve been meaning to look into, cash that could be working harder — this is a good week for a conversation. No deadline attached.
Schedule time to talk through your ClearPath Plan → https://go.oncehub.com/robertclementszoom
And if nothing here is urgent yet: take stock anyway. Q4 moves faster than people expect. Better to walk into it with a plan than to be caught by it.
–Bob Clements, Partner FRS Advisors
[1] IRS, “Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs” — irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-required-minimum-distributions
[2] Federal Reserve, FOMC Statement, September 16, 2026 — federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases