Retire Smarter with Kevin Kroskey, CFP® & Tyler Emrick, CFA® CFP®

Listen as Kevin discusses the book What Retirees Want (WRW) by world-famous "Age Wave" expert Ken Dychtwald, Ph. D. Learn how increasing wealth and longevity have transformed retirement and will continue to create more "Time Affluence." Hear why Work, Leisure, Health, Home, Family, Finances, and Purpose are key zones impacted by this new idea of retirement and how to better think about and prepare...

Many early retirees find they must utilize Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) policies to bridge the gap from employer-provided health insurance to Medicare at age 65. ACA policies are expensive but even affluent families may be able to obtain significant tax credits -- often more than $10,000 yearly -- to offset premiums. Hear Kevin discuss Premium Tax Credits and how to plan to obtain them....

Do you know what it costs to live your lifestyle? Many successful people don't. They haven't had to worry about money, live below their means, and save diligently. Yet, when it comes to retirement planning, you need to know these costs. On one hand, you need to make sure you have enough and don't run out of money. On the other, you need these costs for proper investment and tax planning. Hear Kevi...

If you own a disproportionate amount of cash or bonds in your portfolio, you can be broadly classified as a conservative investor. With today's low-interest rates, being conservative is a tough investment row to hoe. Starting yields have been shown to explain 90%+ of returns realized from high-quality bonds. Ergo low-interest rates equal low returns. So what can you do?    Read more: https://www.t...

Having reasonable assumptions for investment returns is critically important for many reasons. These assumptions will impact your retirement plan, investment allocation, and your peace of mind. Hear Kevin review discuss a recent letter written to his clients about the three broad categories of investments. He'll discuss high-level metrics on how attractive or expensive various parts of the stock a...

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street; If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat; If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat; If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. "Taxman" - The Beatles   Biden's tax proposals have finally been put into legislation and released on September 13th. Thankfully they're not as bad as the Beatles lyrics and tax increases were also less than what was expected.   Hear Kevin...

The 2021 Social Security Trustee's Report was recently released and the 2022 COLA is near finalized.  What can we expect for the COLA and glean from the report?   Tune in to hear the important points and key planning implications for your Social Security benefits.   Spoiler alert: Social Security solvency is not as bad as you may be led to be believed by the media and planning strategies remain im...

In the age of Covid, everyone has seemingly become a data expert .... regardless of one's understanding of data and statistics (sigh).    Hear Kevin highlight some recent math errors he's observed in media, relate them to investing errors, and tie in vaccines to boot.     He'll describe how making bad comparisons in identifying mutual fund category winners is subject to similar errors to drawing c...

You may have acquired stock and seen it significantly rise in value over time. Now you're not sure what to do: let it ride or sell, pay taxes, and reinvest in a better portfolio.   Astute investors know concentrated stock holdings are suboptimal and expose a portfolio to diversifiable risks. But simply selling regardless of tax consequences is also short-sighted. So how do they best fit into your...

Have you heard of ESG? Many investors today are selecting investments in part based on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Don't like fossil fuels, weapons, or pornography? Want to focus on companies that have diverse boards, executive teams, and overall workforce? Have religious beliefs you want to follow when it comes to investing? Then ESG may be right for you. Hear Kevin disc...

Do you know a smart, financially savvy person that still hires a financial advisor? Ever wonder why they do so? Many family stewards often seek an advisor to take care of their family's finances if they cannot. Know a couple where one spouse took care of the family finances and then passed, leaving the surviving spouse the fear and frustration of picking up the financial pieces all while going thr...

What type of investor are you? Are you conservative, moderate, or aggressive?   These qualitative descriptors are how most think of risk. But what is conservative to you may not be conservative to another.  Rather than using non-measurable descriptions of risk, your customized retirement plan needs to be the foundation to objectively measure risk. Then and only then can the three types of risk --...

Many think retirement planning is all about number crunching. While undoubtedly important, you first need to consider the personal and social aspects of your ideal life and retirement. Then align your resources to best support it.   You may recall from your studies psychologist Abraham Maslow's work on the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's work translates to retirement quite well. Interestingly, many t...

Having reasonable assumptions for investment returns is critically important for many reasons. These assumptions will impact your retirement plan, investment allocation, and your peace of mind. Why peace of mind? Well, if you are expecting something unreasonable, no doubt you're likely to be dissatisfied and more likely to be undisciplined. Hear Kevin review 10-year return forecasts from leading m...

One of the beginning steps in every retirement plan is to value your assets and project their values into the future. Valuing assets like stocks and bonds is easy (though making accurate projections becomes more difficult.) Complexity increases even more when you consider illiquid assets like real estate and business ventures. Hear Kevin discuss how to model illiquid assets in your retirement plan...

Hear Kevin describe a conversation he recently had with a podcast listener aged 57. He's planning on working for several more years and was wondering if now is too soon to get serious about planning for retirement. Kevin discussed the qualitative and quantitative benefits clients often get from the Retire Smarter Solution as well as some time-sensitive issues you need to address well before you re...

In the last episode, Kevin answered a listener question on inflation. He explained why retiree spending patterns in part combat inflationary risk retirees face. Now hear Kevin delve deeper into retiree spending patterns. If you don't want to work longer than you have to or want to spend more in retirement, this is an episode you'll want to listen to. Traditional retirement advice of having a stead...

Your money today will buy less next year. This decline is due to inflation, which is often believed to be the silent killer for a retirement income portfolio over time. After all the 4% spending rule had it's worst result starting in 1966 -- a time when inflation began to rise and peaked in the 1970s while economic growth was choppy at best. Might the future resemble this difficult time? Hear Kevi...

The government's money-printing machine is ripping. Here comes round 3 of stimulus checks and larger healthcare tax credits for many pre-Medicare retirees. Hear Kevin discuss the 3 rounds of checks, income phaseout ranges, and planning strategies to get yours. In some cases, you may want to file your 2020 tax return sooner and in others, you may want to wait. For many retirees, we are modifying ou...

It's not easy to hire a professional service provider. Even the most astute consumer only scratches the surface of truly understanding a profession they are not part of. The information gap is huge. So how do you ensure you find a competent and trustworthy advisor? Hear Kevin nine questions to ask your advisor. He will unpack some of the industry gobbledygook, share disclosures from brand-name Wal...

Fish mislabeling was once rampant in the US. Thought you were getting Red Snapper? Surprise! You get porgy or tile fish. Deceptive marketing for profits at best and exposing consumers to serious health risks, including food allergens and heavy metals in pregnant women at worst. Sadly, many 'financial advisors' are similarly mislabeled and may cause financial harm. After all, you just need a 70% on...

Putting the odds of investing and retirement success in your favor should be a given as is being diversified. But what does diversification really mean? Ten stocks? One hundred stocks? Two asset classes or ten? Building on the concept of standard deviation -- or degree of variability -- in investment returns, hear Kevin take the idea of diversification farther. Diversification is not just minimizi...

If your head is in the freezer and your feet in the oven, on average you may feel quite comfortable despite suffering from two extremes. San Diego type weather on the other hand will leave you consistently comfortable over time. Averages are commonly used to discuss investment returns, but they are an oversimplification. You don't receive average returns. Compound returns drive your dollar growth...

Inevitably you will have some investments perform better than others in your portfolio. A normal, human response is to seek pleasure and avoid pain or sell the underperformer and buy what has done well. But does that make investing sense? Listen to Kevin discuss critical concepts of diversification and probability and why process matters more than outcomes. Hear an example of this being applied in...

What a year 2020 was. Pandemic. Contested elections. Civil unrest. Rollercoaster investment markets. As Churchill wrote, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Listen to Kevin discuss investment lessons you can learn from 2020 to be a smarter investor and keep your retirement on track for years to come.   Timestamps: 2:04 - What Stood Out In 2020? 8:02 - The Market Is For...