Retired-ish

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" recently passed through the House of Representatives by a narrow margin and is now in the Senate's hands. This bill consists of extremely important tax legislation that aims to continue on and add to the current tax provisions we have grown accustomed to for the last several years under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. As a pre-retiree or retiree, many of the federal tax pro...

Income planning will make or break your retirement years - This is because your income throughout retirement will be what controls your lifestyle, not your net worth. When doing your pre-retirement planning - hopefully several years before your desired retirement - you'll want to match your lifestyle wants, needs, and goals with the income you are able to generate from your various financial asset...

This is a must-listen episode that could save your family's financial future… Seriously. Estate planning is important, we know that, but what happens when things go wrong, very wrong? In this episode, we delve into true stories of oversight and missed opportunities, each one a powerful lesson in what not to do. Learn how simple mistakes today can cause chaos tomorrow and discover the steps you can...

Long-term care insurance typically becomes a consideration for people in their 50s and 60s after they experience helping out with their aging parent's care and realizing the substantial hit it can make on their life savings. But one of the most overlooked aspects of long-term care insurance is the potential tax benefits that can be had. When considering long-term care insurance, understanding the...

Since President Trump took office for the second time in 2025, tariff talks are all the rage and markets have entered a new phase of extreme volatility. Since tariffs can be a good and a bad thing, we think it's necessary to have some additional context beyond what the mainstream media seems to be focused on specifically - which is higher prices and inflation. To understand the potential economic...

Due to the increasing political and market uncertainty, and recent stock market correction, we felt it was more important than ever to reintroduce this episode of the Retired·ish Podcast throwing it back to episode #8! In this episode we defined the downside of what is called Sequence of Returns Risk - which is in my opinion can be the greatest threat to your retirement savings and income. This ri...

When the stock market produces double digit returns over multiple years in a row, investors and retirement savers naturally begin to get nervous and anticipate some sort of inevitable financial bubble.  This fear often stems from two things, from living and investing through recent historic market crashes such as the dot-com bubble and the great financial crisis, as well as the mere thought about...

If you're a diligent retirement saver, you've likely heard of - and maybe even explored - executing a Roth conversion of some of your pre-tax retirement savings. Executing the Roth conversion itself is the easy part, but trying to figure out whether or not it makes sense and will benefit your particular financial situation is the hard part - since you will voluntarily pay taxes when you convert an...

Investing in the stock market by selecting a handful of individual stocks is tempting for many investors who dream of making substantial gains by picking the "next big thing." But despite the allure, there are many compelling reasons why investors should think twice before diving into individual stock picking and market speculation… More specifically, we discuss: The most important question for DI...

Retirement is often imagined as a permanent vacation that's been earned over many years of sacrifice. You envision yourself traveling the world on cruises, playing endless rounds of golf or pickleball, or telling yourself that you will finally spend more of your time with family and start exercising more. While these dreams can certainly be part of your retirement, it's essential to understand tha...

Two of the most prominent provisions – the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) - that can substantially reduce Social Security benefits for some federal, many public sector and civil service employees were just eliminated after being in effect for the last 40 years! Teacher, police officers, firemen, and some federal workers are some of the most common groups a...

There's no question about it, that when it comes to saving for retirement, the financial mass media pounds the table with all things retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, but there's a vastly underutilized investment vehicle that can help retirees enjoy a potential 6-figure retirement income, entirely tax-free. We are referring to the good olé brokerage account. A brokerage account is simply...

Building up a substantial amount of savings in your 401(k) or IRA may serve as an indicator for a job well done in saving for retirement. But what soon-to-be retirees need to realize is that if the majority of your retirement savings is in pre-tax dollars, taxes will eventually be owed while in retirement and taking distributions. Depending on your tax situation in retirement and the tax laws in p...

The landscape of taxes, retirement savings and Medicare are ever changing. Every year we see changes to the laws and limitations such as tax rates, brackets, and deductions, limitations on retirement plan contributions, and premium changes to Medicare to name a few. 2025 brings us some run of the mill changes sprinkled with substantial changes that can largely benefit retirees and soon to be retir...

If you've built or inherited an investment portfolio alongside the savings in your retirement accounts, you are likely to face some taxation every year on things like interest, dividends, and capital gains generated from the investments. These might be investments such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs held in a brokerage account to name a few. While these investments can serve as a fantasti...

In a recent study published by the investment research company Morningstar, they estimate that the average dollar invested in funds by individual investors over the 10 years ending December 31st, 2023 earned a 1.1% lower rate of return per year than the actual investments they were invested in. This resulted in individual investors out on nearly 16% of the investment's actual returns each year, ev...

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump present starkly different tax proposals for the 2024 election reflecting their contrasting economic priorities. And while the exact outcomes of future tax policy are unknowable, you can be better prepared by having a good understanding of the potential changes. In this episode, I address some of the major tax policies at play if either candidate takes office, and how...

In today's challenging and expensive economic environment, many young adults in their 20's and 30's are struggling to find stable footing when it comes to their finances. Whether that's struggling to find that perfect career that can help them pay off their student debt, saving enough for a downpayment on a first home, or having extra cash each month to pay for childcare.  These common issues are...

When approaching a retirement from a long and successful career, you'll likely have a list of big decisions to make in a relatively short time. One of those decisions will be whether or not you should manage your retirement account(s) on your own after retiring - when you begin to convert them into an income stream to support your lifestyle. This is opposed to looking for outside help from a profe...

When you have assets such as rental property that are going to need to provide you with cash flow throughout your retirement years, you'll want to look into some level of asset protection at some point. When it comes to rental real estate, the Limited Liability Company or LLC might be worth considering. However, the methods and strategies you use will depend on what you have at risk and certain ri...

Having too much of your net worth tied up in one or a couple individual stocks can be a dangerous game to play. It's one that relies heavily on luck and can present a significant risk to your life savings. Things can either turn out really well, or very poorly. Sadly, many people often let their emotions and the potential tax ramifications dictate their next move, but should they? In this episode,...

Implementing important estate planning documents is critical to leaving your ideal legacy upon your death. Among the critical estate planning documents are wills and trusts. Often times, many people confuse the differences between the two, the benefits they can provide, and whether or not they need them at all! More specifically, I discuss: Why getting the appropriate estate planning documents in...

Retirees and pre-retirees often struggle when it comes to spending down their nest-egg in retirement because of the fear of the unknown. No one wants to run out of money too early, yet most people would also like to enjoy what they've worked so hard for. So how do you find that balance? How can you know what you can spend, and for how long?  Living off of your wealth is entirely different than bui...

Life insurance has become an increasingly controversial topic in recent years due to the opinions of financial gurus on YouTube, insurance salesmen, and media giants especially when it comes to using it as a vehicle to build wealth. When considering life insurance as a wealth building vehicle, it really comes down to who is using it and how they are using it. Ultimately, when it comes to building...

Investing in real estate historically has been a tried-and-true method of building wealth over the long-run, if you have the right wherewithal and mentality to do it – Let's face it, it takes work. However, as with any type of investment, investing in real estate has its own set of risks. Without proper analysis, you can lose a lot of money even if you accept what looked like a great deal. Or, you...