Epictetus did not write for investors, retirees, or business owners, yet his framework reads like a modern planning discipline manual. In Discourses 3.2, he described three areas of training required for a wise and good life: the training of desire and aversion, the training of action and duty, and the training of judgment. These three domains map cleanly onto financial planning, particularly at the start of a new year, when markets feel noisy, tax rules feel complex, and the temptation to react replaces the discipline to plan.
January exists for a reason. It creates a natural pause between what has already compounded and what still can. It is not a prediction window. It is an orientation window. That distinction matters, because most financial mistakes stem not from ignorance of facts, but from misdirected desire, poorly examined impulses, and faulty judgment. Epictetus would recognize the pattern immediately.
The current market environment, as outlined in the latest J.P. Morgan Weekly Market Recap, reinforces this lesson. After three blockbuster years for the S&P 500, investors question whether the rally has room to continue. The data suggests the answer is more nuanced than headlines allow. Earnings growth, not valuation expansion, increasingly fuels equity returns. In 2023, only 27% of S&P 500 returns came from earnings growth. By 2025, that figure rose to 84%, with consensus estimates projecting roughly 15% earnings growth in 2026.
This same theme, earnings discipline over narrative excitement, was reinforced in a recent Kestra Investment Management webinar featuring Kara Murphy, CFA, and her investment team, which Mission Financial Planners regularly relies on as a core source of market insight. For clients and investors who want deeper context beyond headlines, the full webinar recording is available HERE. That partnership matters, because judgment improves when multiple disciplined perspectives converge.
Desire and Aversion in a Narrow Market
Epictetus begins with desire and aversion because this is where emotional failure originates. Investors want what feels good now and avoid what feels uncomfortable now, even when both impulses conflict with long-term outcomes.
Technology sectors are projected to contribute roughly 60% of total S&P 500 earnings growth in 2026. Financials follow, benefiting from IPO activity, mergers, acquisitions, and asset management fees.
These engines of growth are real, but they are not evenly distributed across the economy. Data centers create fewer than 100 jobs per billion dollars invested, compared to over a thousand in traditional manufacturing. The earnings story does not translate into broad labor income or median consumer strength.
Kara Murphy and the Kestra Investment Management team consistently emphasize this distinction, strong market internals do not automatically equal economic balance. Their analysis highlights why investors must separate where earnings come from from how households experience the economy. That separation is essential for retirees drawing income, business owners managing liquidity, and families planning legacy strategies.
This divergence creates a psychological trap. Investors see strong index performance and assume economic health is widespread. Retirees see rising account balances and assume risk has diminished. Business owners see liquidity events and assume tax exposure can be handled later. All three assumptions misalign desire with reality.
Stoic training demands clarity about what is good. In planning terms, that means separating market returns from financial outcomes. A rising index does not guarantee retirement income durability. Earnings growth does not eliminate sequence-of-returns risk. Liquidity does not equal legacy unless estate and tax planning keep pace.
Aversion also needs recalibration. Many investors avoid diversification because international markets feel politically uncertain or unfamiliar. Yet both J.P. Morgan and Kestra Investment Management underscore the same conclusion, exposure to U.S. innovators remains critical, but it should be paired with diversification abroad to hedge economic and political uncertainty. Avoiding diversification because it feels uncomfortable is not prudence. It is fear disguised as discipline.
Action and Duty in January Planning
The second area of training Epictetus identifies involves impulses to act or not act, and the broader concept of duty. Financially, this is where January becomes decisive. Planning fails most often not because people choose poorly, but because they delay acting altogether.
The 2026 Retirement Calendar Checklist places three critical obligations squarely in January. Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment and Medicare General Enrollment began on January 1. The fourth quarter estimated tax payment for 2025 was due by January 15. We’re at the end of the month, but January is the month to organize tax documents, project income, and establish planning momentum for the year.
Ignoring these items does not feel dramatic. That is precisely why they matter. Stoicism emphasizes acting deliberately for good reasons, not reactively under pressure. A missed Medicare enrollment window can lock in higher premiums or inadequate coverage for an entire year. A missed estimated tax payment creates penalties and interest that compound quietly. Poor documentation in January turns April into a scramble rather than a strategy session.
This is where Mission Financial Planners’ partnership with Kestra Investment Management becomes especially valuable. Markets inform planning, but planning determines behavior. Kara Murphy’s team provides the macro context, earnings trends, valuation discipline, and risk framing. Mission Financial Planners translates that insight into cash flow decisions, tax strategies, income planning, and estate coordination. One without the other leaves clients exposed.
Duty in this context does not mean rigidity. It means responsibility aligned with reality. If markets reward narrow sectors and fragile growth, planning must prioritize resilience over optimization. January planning is not about squeezing out returns. It is about aligning cash flow, tax exposure, healthcare coverage, and estate structure so that market volatility does not dictate life outcomes.
Judgment, Reason, and Estate Planning Clarity
The third area of training Epictetus names is judgment, the assent the mind gives to its perceptions. This is where financial planning becomes philosophical. Data does not guide behavior on its own. Interpretation does.
The 2025 Key Financial Data highlights one of the most consequential planning variables in decades: the historically high federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax exclusion of $13,990,000 per individual, with a maximum rate of 40 percent. The annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, with a $190,000 exclusion for gifts to a non-citizen spouse.
These numbers invite judgment errors in two directions. Some assume the exemption will last forever and postpone estate planning indefinitely. Others panic about future legislative changes and rush into irreversible strategies without alignment. Both reactions fail Stoic judgment.
Reasoned judgment recognizes two truths simultaneously. First, the current exemption creates a historically favorable environment for lifetime gifting, trust funding, and multigenerational planning. Second, uncertainty about future tax law does not justify reckless action. It justifies thoughtful, flexible structures.
This mirrors how Kara Murphy approaches markets. She does not build portfolios on predictions. She builds them on probabilities, discipline, and adaptability. Estate planning deserves the same mindset.
Tax Awareness as Emotional Discipline
Tax planning often triggers emotional reactions because it forces confrontation with reality. The medical expense deduction rules illustrate this perfectly. Many taxpayers assume medical deductions only apply during illness. The IRS definition is far broader, encompassing diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and mitigation. This includes insurance premiums, qualified long-term care insurance, annual physicals, prescribed medical devices, home health equipment, and certain medical travel expenses.
Self-employed individuals with net profit may deduct health insurance premiums as an adjustment to income. Business owners, partners, and S-corporation shareholders may deduct health insurance and Medicare premiums even without itemizing. Certain medical conferences related to chronic disease qualify, excluding meals and lodging. Weight-loss programs prescribed for diagnosed disease may qualify. Gym memberships may qualify if prescribed for rehabilitation or treatment.
The discipline lies not in memorizing the list, but in judgment. What expenses align with legitimate medical care? What documentation supports deductibility? What reimbursements offset deductions? Stoic composure matters here. Emotionally driven deductions attract scrutiny. Reasoned deductions align with rules and intent.
Markets, Mortality, and Perspective
The J.P. Morgan market data reminds us that markets reward innovation but do not guarantee stability. Earnings growth can coexist with economic fragility. Stoicism reminds us that clarity does not eliminate risk, it contextualizes it.
Training desire means resisting the urge to chase recent winners without regard to risk concentration. Training action means executing planning tasks before deadlines impose stress. Training judgment means interpreting data without distortion.
Mission Financial Planners’ relationship with Kara Murphy, CFA, and the Kestra Investment Management team exists precisely for this reason. Institutional-grade market insight paired with fiduciary-level planning creates clarity where noise dominates. For those who want to explore that market perspective in more depth, the full Kestra webinar recording is a great resource.
A Deliberate Close
Epictetus warned that strong emotions arise when we fail in our desires and aversions. Financially, this translates to anxiety during volatility, regret during tax season, and confusion during life transitions. None of these outcomes stem from a lack of intelligence. They stem from untrained attention.
The current environment offers opportunity, but only for those who approach it with discipline. Earnings growth may drive markets, but planning drives outcomes. Tax law may evolve, but preparation compounds. Estate exemptions may sunset, but clarity endures.
The work of January is quiet. It involves paperwork, projections, conversations, and decisions that rarely feel urgent. That is why it matters. Stoicism teaches us to train where no one is watching, so that when pressure arrives, composure remains.
That is as true in markets as it is in life.