IMC Financial Consulting

IMC Financial Consulting We offer a holistic comprehensive services to help clients prioritize and attain their life goals by making smart financial decisions.

Two skills are compounding on the same timeline. Most people are only investing in one.Stanford's AI Index 2026 makes th...
06/05/2026

Two skills are compounding on the same timeline. Most people are only investing in one.

Stanford's AI Index 2026 makes the AI side hard to ignore. AI skills now appear in 2.5% of US job postings, a 297% jump over the decade. Workers with advanced AI skills earn 56% more than peers in the same roles without them. The growth has spread well past tech into healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.

That premium is real. It is also not the whole story.

Money literacy is the layer that runs your life when the paycheck stops. AI literacy boosts the paycheck while it is flowing. They are parallel compounders, not replacements. The worker who builds AI fluency but never builds money fluency ends up with a bigger paycheck and the same financial outcomes.

Order matters. Money first. Pick the smaller of your two literacies and make it your next 30-day project. planningimc.co

JPMorgan Chase just launched a 9-person Athlete Council, chaired by Dwyane Wade, with Tom Brady, A'ja Wilson, and Sue Bi...
06/04/2026

JPMorgan Chase just launched a 9-person Athlete Council, chaired by Dwyane Wade, with Tom Brady, A'ja Wilson, and Sue Bird among the members. The mandate: advise the bank on athletes' financial needs across career stages, from college through retirement.

When a major institution builds a council like that, the underlying problem is usually structural, not personal.

The numbers in JPMC's own release back the read. Less than 2% of NCAA athletes turn pro. Most pros retire before age 35. About 1 in 6 NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement. Nearly 65% of athletes report no financial education in school.

Kristin Lemkau, who runs J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, framed it cleanly: "Careers can be short and retirement unexpected."

Pro athletes aren't the problem. The system around them is. Exposure (what early money does) and ex*****on (what the structure looks like after the playing career) are the two pieces almost no athlete is taught in time.

Teachable, not inevitable.

Source: JPMorgan Chase, March 2026.

Here is a number worth sharing with the couples in your life: 40% of Americans in committed relationships have committed...
06/03/2026

Here is a number worth sharing with the couples in your life: 40% of Americans in committed relationships have committed financial infidelity with their current partner, according to Bankrate's January 2026 Financial Infidelity Survey.

45% admit they do not know everything about their partner's finances. Almost 1 in 10 are keeping a major source of debt, income, or expenses completely hidden.

And 43% of U.S. adults say keeping financial secrets is at least as bad as physical infidelity.

The fight inside most households is rarely about the money itself. It is about the secret. Hidden debt is harder to recover from than ordinary debt that both partners can see, name, and plan against.

The good news is that financial transparency is a learnable skill. A standing quarterly money check-in, sharing one previously unshared number, and agreeing together on a dollar amount that triggers a "tell me first" conversation are all practical starting points.

If a home purchase is on the horizon this year, this is the math worth running first.Per Bankrate's May 27, 2026 analysi...
06/02/2026

If a home purchase is on the horizon this year, this is the math worth running first.

Per Bankrate's May 27, 2026 analysis, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is 6.56%. On the April median sales price of $417,700, with 20% down, monthly principal and interest comes out to $2,125. Against a typical family income of about $106,800 per year, that one line item eats roughly 24% of monthly gross pay. Taxes, insurance, utilities, and maintenance are all still on top.

Cotality principal economist Thom Malone called the current market a standoff. Buyers are rejecting today's price tags. Sellers refuse to offer steep discounts. Neither side is moving right now.

The takeaway for households is not a prediction. It is a process. Work the full monthly number before the headline rate. Test it against a real budget. Ask what is left for retirement, debt, childcare, and savings once the mortgage is paid.

Source: Bankrate Mortgage Analysis, May 27, 2026.

06/01/2026

Here is a number worth checking this week: about 1 in 4 workers are not contributing enough to their 401(k) to capture their full employer match, according to 2026 Empower research.

The match is the highest-return move in personal finance. An employer that matches your contribution is offering an instant 50% to 100% return on every dollar you put in, and a quarter of workers are leaving part of that on the table.

The Empower example math is striking. A worker earning $65,000 who contributes 5% with a 5% match grows to roughly $1,082,547 over 40 years at a 6% average annual return. The same worker contributing only 2% ends up with about $433,019. Same salary, same employer, roughly $650,000 of difference. Just from capturing the full match.

The cause is almost always behavioral. People set their contribution percentage at onboarding and never revisit it. Auto-enrollment defaults are often below the rate needed to capture the full match.

The fix is two minutes inside your benefits portal. Check the rate. Compare it to your employer's match formula. Adjust once.

Share this with someone who has not opened their benefits portal in a while.

Two-thirds of younger investors feel good about 2026. The harder question is where that confidence is coming from.A J.P....
05/29/2026

Two-thirds of younger investors feel good about 2026. The harder question is where that confidence is coming from.

A J.P. Morgan Personal Investing survey of 1,000 U.K. retail investors found confidence among younger investors rose to two-thirds, up from 58% the year before. More of them are now getting tips from social media, Reddit forums, and finfluencers instead of traditional research. J.P. Morgan pointed out the catch: acting on those tips can lead to poor decisions or scams.

It is a U.K. survey, but the lesson is universal. Before you act on any money "tip," consider the source. Who profits if you follow it? Are they actually licensed or credentialed? Do they ever show you the downside, or only the wins?

The red flags tend to repeat: promises you can't lose, urgency, the word "secret," and a trail of affiliate links.

This is the kind of media literacy we build into our work at IMC. Read the source before you read the recommendation.

planningimc.co

If you know a college athlete signing NIL deals, this is worth a two-minute read.NIL income is treated as self-employmen...
05/28/2026

If you know a college athlete signing NIL deals, this is worth a two-minute read.

NIL income is treated as self-employment income. The school or brand does not withhold taxes, so the athlete is personally responsible for the bill. They typically get a Form 1099-NEC and report it on a Schedule C, which means regular income tax plus a 15.3% self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare) on top.

A few things that catch people off guard:

Non-cash perks count too. A car, apparel, a trip, even trading cards can show up as taxable income.

Since nothing is withheld, the IRS expects quarterly estimated payments (roughly April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15). Skipping them can bring penalties.

And for 2026, the 1099-NEC reporting threshold rises to $2,000. That is a paperwork trigger for whoever pays, not a tax exemption. Income under it is still taxable.

A common guideline CPAs share is to set aside about 35 to 40% of NIL income for taxes, then bring the real numbers to a tax professional.

This is the part of getting paid nobody teaches: plan for the tax before the check clears.

Car payments are quietly straining a lot of household budgets right now.The New York Fed reported this month that U.S. a...
05/27/2026

Car payments are quietly straining a lot of household budgets right now.

The New York Fed reported this month that U.S. auto-loan balances rose by $18 billion in the first quarter of 2026 to a record $1.69 trillion (Household Debt and Credit, Q1 2026). Total household debt is now $18.8 trillion.

Here is what we teach about it. A car does not cost a monthly payment. It costs four things at once: payment, insurance, fuel, and maintenance. Added together, that is your total cost of ownership, and it is the number worth watching, not the monthly payment by itself.

One common guideline some budgeting educators use is keeping total car costs under roughly 15 to 20 percent of take-home pay. Think of it as a reference point, not a rule.

So before you sign, add up all four, then measure them against what actually lands in your account each month. A "fine" payment and a "fine" total cost of ownership are not always the same thing.

What is the one car cost you wish you had planned for sooner?

05/27/2026

Summer never actually sneaks up on us. We know the travel, the camps, the weddings, the cookouts, and the gas are coming.

The hard part is that we leave those costs unplanned and then reach for a card when they land.

Here's a calmer way: a sinking fund. That's just money you set aside a little at a time for a known expense, so when it shows up, you already have the cash.

The method is simple. Name the expense. Estimate the total. Count the months until you need it. Divide. Automate one small transfer into a separate spot and let it build.

When summer arrives, it's already paid for.

What's the one summer expense that always seems to surprise people? Tell us below.

05/22/2026

Here is the number that stops most people in their tracks.

A single $1,000 invested at age 20, using a historical average annual return of 7%, grows to roughly $21,000 by the time you reach 65. That is 45 years of compounding doing the work for you. But if you wait until age 40 to put in that same $1,000? You end up with about $5,400 by retirement.

Same amount of money. Same return rate. The only difference is time.

That is compound interest: your returns earn returns, and the growth is exponential, not linear. The earlier you start, the more time that math works in your favor.

And you do not need a large lump sum to begin. The habit of automating a small recurring contribution, even $25 or $50 per paycheck, is what actually builds long-term wealth for most families.

These are educational examples based on historical averages, not guarantees.

Ready to build a plan? Visit planningimc.co.

Address

418 19th Street Ensley
Birmingham, AL
35218

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when IMC Financial Consulting posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to IMC Financial Consulting:

Shortcuts

Share

Category