THE GOLDEN GOOSE
EIP's Newsletter for Financial Literacy
September 2026 | Approximately 6-minute read
In This Issue
How AI is changing financial fraud, why September is a great time for a financial checkup, one simple step to improve your digital security, and a book about turning obstacles into opportunities.
A Note From Our Team
Approximately 90 words | Less than 1 minute
Our goal with The Golden Goose is simple: provide useful education that can help you make more informed decisions about your money and your financial future.
Sometimes we'll discuss investments and markets. Other times we'll explore retirement, taxes, Social Security, cybersecurity, health, careers, or simply ideas that we believe can help people make better decisions.
We also want to hear from you. If there's a topic, question, or concern you'd like us to address in a future edition, send it our way. If you're wondering about it, chances are someone else is too.
Cybersecurity Is Part of Financial Planning Now
Protecting Your Wealth in a Digital World
Approximately 450 words | 2-minute read
For generations, protecting your financial life meant maintaining emergency savings, carrying appropriate insurance, diversifying investments, safeguarding important documents, and making thoughtful financial decisions.
Today, we need to add something else to that list:
Protecting your digital life.
Our bank accounts, investment accounts, retirement plans, credit cards, tax information, medical information, email accounts, and personal identities are increasingly connected to the digital world.
That convenience has created tremendous benefits. It has also created new opportunities for criminals.
Estimates of the economic damage caused by cybercrime vary considerably, but there is little disagreement that it represents an enormous and growing global financial threat.
AI Is Changing the Game
Artificial intelligence has tremendous potential to improve our lives. Unfortunately, criminals can use the same technology.
A poorly written email asking you to send money may be easy to recognize. An AI-assisted email, text message, image, or even voice that appears to come from your boss, financial institution, friend, child, or grandchild may be much more convincing.
That makes one old-fashioned skill increasingly valuable:
Slow down.
Fraud frequently relies on urgency:
"Your account has been compromised."
"You need to send money immediately."
"Your child is in trouble."
"You must verify this information now."
If a request involving money, passwords, or personal information seems unusual, stop. Independently contact the person or institution using contact information you already trust.
Five Ways to Strengthen Your Digital Defense
- Use strong, unique passwords. Avoid using the same password across multiple important accounts.
- Enable multifactor authentication. Prioritize your email, bank, investment, and retirement accounts.
- Keep devices and applications updated. Security updates exist for a reason.
- Review your accounts regularly. Look for transactions or activity you don't recognize.
- Verify unusual financial requests independently. Even if a request appears to come from someone you know, confirm it before sending money or information.
Pay particular attention to your primary email account. Access to email can potentially provide a pathway to resetting passwords for numerous other services.
Something to Consider
Financial planning isn't only about growing your wealth. It's also about protecting what you've already built.
When money is involved, urgency can be your enemy. Slow down.
If you ever receive a suspicious communication involving an account we help you with, please feel free to call us before taking action.
The September Financial Checkup
Don't Wait Until December
Approximately 475 words | 2½-minute read
September occupies an interesting place on the financial calendar.
Most of the year has passed, so you probably have a reasonably good idea of what your income, spending, savings, and financial life look like in 2026.
But the year isn't over.
That means there may still be time to make adjustments rather than discovering in December, or even next April, that you wish you had done something differently.
Retirement Savings
Are you saving what you intended to save this year?
If your employer offers a retirement plan match, are you contributing enough to receive the full match available to you?
If your financial situation has improved, could you comfortably increase your contribution for the remaining months?
Pretax or Roth?
Many retirement plans offer both traditional pretax and Roth contributions. Neither is automatically right for everyone.
Income, taxes, age, retirement plans, and other circumstances can influence the decision. If your financial situation has changed significantly, it may be worth revisiting an election you made years ago.
Cash Reserves and Debt
How much accessible emergency savings do you currently have?
Has that reserve declined because of unexpected expenses?
At the same time, look at your debt. High-interest credit card balances can quietly become a significant obstacle to building wealth.
Taxes
Did anything significant change this year?
A new job, large raise or bonus, investment sale, business venture, retirement, Social Security, charitable gift, or other major financial event may be a reason to speak with your tax professional before year end.
Beneficiaries, Estate Planning, and Insurance
When was the last time you reviewed the beneficiaries on your retirement accounts and life insurance?
Marriage, divorce, births, deaths, a new home, changing family relationships, or significant changes in your finances may also warrant reviewing estate documents and insurance coverage.
You don't necessarily need to change anything. But you should know what your current elections and documents say.
Where Did Your Money Actually Go?
Finally, look at your spending.
Not where you think your money went.
Where did it actually go?
Review several months of bank and credit card activity. You may find subscriptions you've forgotten about, recurring expenses that no longer provide value, or spending habits that have quietly grown.
The purpose isn't to eliminate everything enjoyable. Money is meant to improve our lives.
The objective is to make sure the things receiving your money are actually providing value to you.
Something to Consider
A financial checkup doesn't require rebuilding your entire financial plan.
Sometimes it identifies just one or two things worth addressing: increase a retirement contribution, rebuild an emergency fund, pay down expensive debt, update a beneficiary, or finally make that appointment with your CPA or estate attorney.
December is a frustrating time to discover something you could have addressed in September.
This Month's Financial To-Do
Approximately 50 words | Less than 1 minute
Turn On Multifactor Authentication for Your Primary Email
If you haven't already done so, take a few minutes this month to enable multifactor authentication on your primary email account.
It's one small action that can add another layer of protection to an account that may provide access to many parts of your digital life.
Worth a Read
Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage
By Laura Huang
Approximately 100 words | Less than 1 minute
Hard work matters, but hard work alone doesn't always determine who gets ahead.
In Edge, Laura Huang explores how people can recognize what makes them different, better communicate the value they bring, and sometimes turn perceived disadvantages or obstacles into advantages.
I enjoyed the book because it challenges the idea that success is simply about working harder than everyone else. Huang looks at opportunity, perception, perseverance, and how we can sometimes create our own advantages rather than waiting for opportunities to find us.
It's an interesting read for anyone thinking about career, business, relationships, or personal growth.
Have a financial question or an idea for a future issue? We'd love to hear it.
Be well,
Mike Romig, Kyle Veverka, Bilal Abdulkadir & Dayle Scheinman
Elevated Investment Partners