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It might be hard to believe, but yes, it’s almost the middle of the year and the perfect time to take a look at how you’re doing financially: are you fiscally fit or do you need a few adjustments? Whether it’s saving more, paying down debt, or prepping for retirement, you still have time to effect change. Here are a few ways to get started.
Kind of a no-brainer, but ask yourself:
In addition to these things, other important goals might include building your emergency fund (broken dishwasher, for instance); saving for a vacation; and finally, the certainty no one can escape – tax preparation.
Your habits might have shifted over the past few months, so places to put a lens on might be:
In the second half of the year, other things to consider include insurance renewals, back-to-school expenses, and year-end medical costs.
This might be far away or near soon. No matter, it’s critical to keep an eye on the following things:
If you can increase funding for any of these, now’s the time to do so. Retirement comes along more quickly than you think.
Take time to go over:
You might have other benefits, of course, to review. And while many people wait until open enrollment to give these a think, you don’t have to be one of them. Take action now to amend them so you’ll be better prepared for the rest of the year.
Between now and July, you can get a jumpstart by planning ahead – and you won’t be stressed when it’s actually tax time. Taking a look now can help you:
So now that you’ve taken inventory of your finances, you can adjust for the remaining months. Your new plan might include:
The idea is not to change everything all at once. Your goal should be to take small steps so you can move forward with confidence and finish the year strong. All it takes is a little time. And as we know, time is money. Make the last six months of 2026 count!
Sources
https://www.benefitandfinancial.com/blog/mid-year-financial-review-are-you-on-track-for-2026
Artificial intelligence is driving an unprecedented surge in data center construction. Developers, private equity sponsors and their tax advisors are navigating a complicated web of questions that touch everything from ownership structure to site selection to power sourcing. Get the early decisions wrong and the tax consequences can follow a project for years.
Private equity has increasingly turned to real estate investment trusts when backing data center projects. Structure a REIT correctly, and you sidestep corporate-level taxation entirely. Foreign investors get an even better deal. Sovereign wealth funds and foreign pension funds can participate without any obligation to file U.S. tax returns. Data centers, with their heavy real estate footprint, slot into the REIT framework more naturally than many other asset classes.
That said, the fit is not seamless. Related party rent rules create traps for the unwary. Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds need to confirm they do not hold stakes in both a data center REIT and its tenant. Another wrinkle involves equipment. Data centers demand significant upfront investment in personal property that may not count as qualifying REIT assets. The tax code requires that 75 percent of a REIT’s total asset value consist of real estate, cash, and government securities at each quarter’s close. Developers often must segregate personal property until the REIT builds up enough good assets to clear that hurdle.
Reliable power and water access have become one of the toughest operational problems in the industry. Demand is so intense that many developers are generating their own electricity on-site. The tax treatment of these co-located power facilities depends heavily on the energy source and delivery method. Get it wrong, and the generation asset may not qualify for REIT treatment.
Solar photovoltaic systems sit on relatively solid ground under existing guidance. Nuclear and natural gas, which many see as the next wave of data center power, do not. Current rules leave significant uncertainty around whether these sources can work within a REIT structure.
The IRS priority guidance plan for 2025 and 2026 contains no projects aimed squarely at data centers. Regulation section 1.856-10(g), finalized in 2016, includes an example analyzing customized electrical and telecommunications systems in a data center context, but practitioners continue pushing for clearer rules on alternative energy.
Congress may offer relief on the waterfront. In April 2025, Representative Darin LaHood of Illinois proposed a new section 48F that would provide a 30 percent credit for qualifying water reuse projects, including on-site recycling systems at data centers. With U.S. data centers projected to consume 33 billion gallons of water by 2028, the bill attracted 21 cosponsors and bipartisan support.
The White House has made its priorities clear as well. The Trump administration’s July 2025 AI action plan established a goal of achieving global dominance in artificial intelligence, with infrastructure as one of three pillars. An executive order, issued July 23, 2025, focused specifically on reducing federal regulatory obstacles to data center construction.
Several provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act benefit data center projects, even though lawmakers did not design them with that sector in mind. The return of 100 percent bonus depreciation under section 168(k) matters enormously for an industry requiring massive capital outlays.
Rural Opportunity Zones sweeten the economics further. Investments in qualified rural opportunity funds now qualify for a 30 percent basis step-up after five years, triple the 10 percent available in standard zones. A special rule targeting improvements to existing structures in rural areas cuts the substantial improvement threshold to 50 percent of adjusted basis, compared to more than 100 percent for non-rural funds.
Developers and investors evaluating new projects will find that entity structure, site selection, and the shifting regulatory environment all interact in ways that directly affect the bottom line. Getting the tax picture right from the start remains essential.
Businesses are moving beyond basic automation into a new era of intelligent, self-directed systems. While automation helps with streamlining repetitive tasks, agentic AI workflows enable systems to make decisions, take action, and continuously improve with minimal human oversight.
Most businesses adopting agentic AI have no structured way to prove it is working. Although they can feel the difference, they can’t measure it. Without measurement, return on investment (ROI) conversations stall, budgets get cut, and genuinely transformative tools get shelved.
Agentic AI workflows are designed to operate with a degree of independence. Unlike traditional automation, which follows predefined rules, agentic systems are goal-oriented.
Once given an objective, they plan, execute, adjust, and complete tasks across multiple steps, tools, and decisions without requiring human intervention. For example, an agentic workflow may pull data from multiple systems, analyze it, draft a report, flag anomalies, and email a summary.
Another example is a supply chain AI agent that not only highlights anomalies but can also reorder stock, renegotiate pricing thresholds, and even reroute logistics as these actions fall within predefined objectives.
Agentic AI can also improve efficiency and productivity by identifying inefficiencies in workflows and adjusting them in real time.
For businesses facing rising labor costs and increasing demand for speed and personalization, this evolution is more than a technological advancement. It offers a strategic advantage.
Traditional ROI models are rather straightforward as they compare the cost of a system to the output generated. ROI on projects using traditional models is measured based on cost savings, headcount reduction and cycle-time compression. However, agentic AI is more dynamic because the systems improve over time. This means the output isn’t static – rather, it compounds. These systems also reduce the need for ongoing supervision, operate continuously, and often uncover efficiencies that were not initially anticipated.
As a result, the ROI of agentic AI is not just immediate cost savings but also includes long-term gains. These gains include improved decision-making, faster execution, higher productivity, strategic agility and the ability to scale operations without a proportional increase in cost. Measuring this kind of value requires a broader, more forward-looking approach.
To measure agentic AI ROI, businesses need a structured approach that connects AI deployment to business outcomes.
Traditional automation delivered value by reducing manual effort. Agentic AI, on the other hand, reduces decision latency, operational friction, and coordination costs. Therefore, AI agents’ ROI is not defined by savings alone. Its real value lies in the ability to generate compounding returns across multiple dimensions of a business. By adopting a broader view of ROI, organizations can better assess impact, build stronger adoption cases, and identify new opportunities for optimization.
When it comes to raw materials, especially for fossil fuels, it’s essential to evaluate existing and potential production capabilities for such companies. Using the EV/2P Ratio is a powerful tool when evaluating fossil fuel-related companies.
This ratio is calculated by dividing a business’ enterprise value into the company’s reserves. It provides financial analysts, investors and internal business stakeholders with a snapshot of a company’s reserves and the business’ likelihood of preserving operation growth. This standardizes valuations, thereby allowing analysts to compare company-to-company financials.
Enterprise Value (EV) / Total 2P Reserves
Defined as: Enterprise Value = Equity (open market price) + Debt (open market price) – Cash and Cash Equivalents
2P = Proven and Probable Reserves
If a company’s capitalization is $300 million and debt consisting of $225 million, along with $30 million for proven reserve value, $20 million in probable reserves, and $25 million in possible reserves, the company’s resulting enterprise value becomes:
$300 million + $225 million = $525 million
The 2P reserves is:
$30 million + $20 million = $50 million
Plugging the numbers into the original formula, it’s: $525 million / $50 million = 10.5x (multiple)
Based on the resulting 10.5 multiple, this ratio provides a current valuation that translates to for every $1 in 2P reserves equals $10.50 of a market valuation.
Reserves are how internal/external stakeholders value the production/growth potential of oil/gas companies. It’s broken down into two categories:
1.) P1 are proven reserves, which are the highest caliber reserves. There’s at least a 9 in 10 percent likelihood (or more) of recoverable reserves. It’s also known as P90.
2.) Probable reserve (also known as P50) has an even chance of either non-recoverability or realized recoverability. This is the next best, but a lesser grade than P1.
These two resource categories are referred to as 2P.
Depending on the company’s calculated EV/2P Ratio, the business owner or investor can determine a course of action to take.
If it’s higher, it’s more highly valued than its competitors based on the same level of 2P reserves; therefore, the company’s shares are more expensive against its peers. This can give investors pause because other undervalued stocks are more attractive due to a higher likelihood they’ll appreciate.
However, if a company is valued higher, but the company is more efficient or a higher performer, investors also may be interested because its production and earnings justify the higher valuation. That’s why looking at the metric in a silo is not effective.
When it comes to debt and analyzing this ratio, fossil fuel businesses are often highly levered since they use massive sums of debt for research and development and continued operations.
Since the EV value looks at debt and equity concurrently, analyzing a company’s capital structure is essential when comparing companies’ valuations. Essentially, if a company has too much debt and if interest rates suddenly increase or it can’t service debt if the price of crude plummets, it may run into debt servicing issues.
While this ratio is effective in providing a level playing field for analytical uses, it’s important to remember that it needs to be used in conjunction with comprehensive financial analysis.
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