UpTrajectory Review
Beth Pinsker of MarketWatch opens her midyear money column with a jab at the standard advice: advisers love to tell you to rebalance your portfolio in June, and she wants you to do four other things first. The available text gives us only the headline and that one-line teaser, so the four moves themselves sit behind the link. The framing, though, tells us plenty. Pinsker positions the piece as a corrective, aimed at entrepreneurs who get generic wealth-management advice that ignores how a small business actually runs. That alone makes it worth your click.
Why does this matter to you, the operator? Because midyear is when you can still change the year. December is for tallying damage; June is for steering. Most entrepreneurs treat their personal investments and their business checking account as one amorphous pool, and advisers often do the same. A column that says skip the portfolio shuffle, do these four things instead, signals that Pinsker will push you toward cash-flow hygiene, tax positioning, retirement contributions, or debt strategy — the levers you actually control before 12/31.
We are skeptical of one thing: the teaser's dismissive tone toward rebalancing. Rebalancing matters, especially after the market swings of the past two years. But we agree with the underlying point. For a business owner, your biggest asset is often the company itself — illiquid, concentrated, and hungry for capital. Rebalancing a brokerage account while your business carries a 9% line of credit or you have underfunded your SEP-IRA is rearranging deck chairs. The four moves likely address that hierarchy.
The second-order effect here is behavioral. A midyear check-in forces you to look at numbers most owners avoid: profit margins, owner draws, estimated tax payments, personal emergency reserves. If Pinsker's four moves prompt even one of those reviews, the column pays for itself in avoided penalties or caught overspending. The cost of ignoring midyear planning shows up in Q4, when tax strategies have expired and cash is locked in inventory you cannot move.
There is also a quieter cost to skipping this ritual: decision fatigue. When you defer financial review to year-end, you compress every choice — retirement contributions, equipment purchases, hiring timing, tax elections — into a six-week window when your accountant is least available and your own attention is thinnest. Spreading those decisions across a June review and a December follow-up gives you two chances to catch errors instead of one. It also gives your accountant lead time to model scenarios before deadlines harden.
Watch for whether the full column addresses the entrepreneur-specific trap: paying yourself last. If the four moves include a concrete salary or draw target, estimated-tax adjustments, or a retirement contribution deadline, act on them this week. Pull your June profit-and-loss statement, compare it to your 2025 projections, and schedule an hour with your accountant before summer vacations scatter everyone. The link is worth the read — but only if you pair it with your own numbers open on the desk.
“Financial advisers would tell you to rebalance your portfolio at a midyear check-in. Make these 4 money moves instead.” — MarketWatch Top Stories
Takeaway: Pull your June P&L this week, compare it to your 2025 projections, and book your accountant before summer scatters everyone.
Excerpt from the original — MarketWatch Top Stories
Financial advisers would tell you to rebalance your portfolio at a midyear check-in. Make these 4 money moves instead.