Shotwell Rutter Baer

How do you know when you’re financially ready to retire? Should you delay Social Security? How much should you expect healthcare to cost? These are some of the most common questions we hear from clients and podcast listeners, and in this episode, we’re answering them around the kitchen table. David Shotwell and Nick Nauta walk through the retirement planning topics that matter most as...

Health insurance is one of the biggest retirement planning questions for State of Michigan employees. The rules can be complicated, especially when you are trying to understand retiree coverage, Medicare, premium subsidies, and how your decisions affect your spouse or dependents. In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, Dave Shotwell and Nick Nauta walk through the major health insurance decision...

Retirement planning is about more than investments, savings targets, and account balances. In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, Nick Nauta sits down with Cole Williams to discuss the Kinder Institute approach to financial life planning. Cole shares insights from his Registered Life Planner training and explains how financial planning can help people connect their money to the life they truly...

Retirement planning does not stop when you reach your savings goal. The next challenge is figuring out how to turn those savings into dependable retirement income. In this episode, David Shotwell and Nick Nauta discuss retirement income planning for Michigan State University employees, including how to estimate spending needs, structure withdrawals, evaluate Social Security timing, and think about...

Tax planning is not something that should only happen during tax season. In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, Dave and Nick discuss some of the most common retirement tax mistakes and why proactive planning can make a significant difference throughout retirement. The discussion focuses on how retirement income sources are taxed, how Roth conversions fit into a retirement strategy, and why und...

In this quarterly market update, we take a step back and look at what really happened during the first quarter of 2026 and what it means for your financial plan. We have been partnering with East Bay Investment Services since 2021 to help guide our investment models. Each quarter, they provide a balanced view of the economy, including both opportunities and risks. One consistent theme over the yea...

Welcome back to Kitchen Table Finance. Today’s conversation brings a fresh perspective from the next generation of financial planners. We sit down with Aditya “Adi” Chaturvedi, a Michigan State University junior and SRB intern, to talk about his journey from Mumbai to East Lansing and what led him into financial planning. Adi shares how his background in math, exposure to finance through family, a...

Required Minimum Distributions are one of the most important, and often misunderstood, parts of retirement planning. For Michigan State University employees , the rules can be even more complex due to the different types of retirement plans available. In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, Dave and Nick take a practical, straightforward approach to help you understand how RMDs actually work and...

In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, Dave and Nick break down the difference between traditional financial planning and life planning, and why that distinction matters more than most people realize. Traditional financial planning focuses on numbers, projections, and optimization. It answers questions like: when you can retire how to minimize taxes how to allocate investments These are importa...

Health insurance is one of the most confusing parts of retirement planning, especially for Michigan State University employees approaching retirement. In this episode of Kitchen Table Finance, David Shotwell and Nick Nauta walk through the basics of how retiree health insurance works for MSU employees. They explain what happens if you retire before age 65, how Medicare fits into your plan, and the...