Take Back Retirement

Medicare is a huge part of your retirement. Whether you're looking to arm yourself with the information you need in preparation for the next stage of your life, or you're already there and simply want to learn how you can do better with what you currently have, this is the episode for you.   Susan Sloan, a licensed agent and longtime friend, joins us to do a deep dive into everything women need to...

In the United States, we can't talk finances without talking taxes . It shouldn't come as a surprise that taxes are an inevitable part of our reality and are inescapable. The best (and only) way to go about navigating taxes is to, as Stephanie and Kevin like to say, "be smart about it, know what's going on, then make your decisions."     A Roth IRA is a tool that falls under the category of tax pl...

Retiring "early" is a process that contains many more moving pieces than most people think. In this episode, we tackle these factors one-by-one and offer some advice on how to cover all your bases before taking the plunge into retirement.     The first question we have to address is, why 65? It's true that, historically, Social Security kicked in once you turned 65 and so did a number of pension p...

"Most of us do not do enough to prepare for the unexpected." How sure are you that you, your family, and your business are ready in times of emergency?   Our guest today is Mary Beth Simón. She founded Niche Partnership Consulting "to solve real-world problems faced by individuals and entrepreneurs" with particular emphasis on helping them create their contingency plan to keep business and life ru...

What the heck is long-term care and why should we care?   Only 12% of women feel highly knowledgeable about long-term care and only 27% have a plan to fund it despite the fact that 50% of women expect to require it.   The first thing to note is that, when we talk about long-term care, we're not talking about medical care or health insurance. Long-term care (also known as custodial or even unskille...

Today's guest is Lori Osterberg. She is an author, content creator, educator, and, in her own words, a "Gen-Xer who has been setting the online world on fire for the past 20 years."   Currently in a little town outside Portland, OR, Lori is living what she recently realized to be her dream life. She writes up to three books a year and just recently published her ninth novel.   Lori recalls how at...

Social Security is the foundation for every retirement income plan, and it seems really simple: you hit retirement age then turn around and start getting your money. In fact, the benefits you can reap are actually much more powerful than most people think; however, it's also a more complicated topic than many of us realize. In this episode, we highlight several important points that women specific...

Today's guest is Cathy Sikorski. She is a practicing attorney in elder law. At the same time, she has personal experience being a caregiver for elders and not-so-elders. Her bestselling book, Who Moved My Teeth?: Preparing for Self, Loved Ones and Caregiving , combines her 25-plus years of legal and practical experience into a guide for preparing yourself or your loved ones for the complicated fut...

About eight years ago, we had a client—let's call her Alison. She was in her late 30s and doing great in her career. Her income was picking up. We had thought about the best way for her to save her money for the things she wanted to do, among which was to leave her high-stress job before the age of 65. One day I got a text. Her husband had died. Her whole plan had gone sideways. In financial plann...

Today's guest is Sarah Brenner. Sarah is the Director of Retirement Education at Ed Slott and Company. She truly is an expert in IRAs—Individual Retirement Accounts—which for so many of us form the crux of our plan to save for retirement. But best – she knows how to explain the complicated stuff clearly. Listen in and learn the key things women need to know, especially after widowhood and divorce....

In this episode we speak of the issues and fears people, especially women, tend to have around investing and how often times that fear or uncertainty leads to a late or complete lack of action taken in investing. We believe that there's no "perfect" time to enter the market and that "time  in  the market is more important than  timing  the market." It's important to look at investing as a long-gam...

Today ' s guest is Wealth Empowerment Coach Sheila Netti. Sheila is an amazing source of knowledge on all things money management and financial education. In this conversation, she goes down memory lane to talk about her personal retirement journey. Having grown up in the projects in 1960s Harlem, the environment where Sheila spent her childhood was far from the safest and most prestigious. Couple...

A common topic for this time of year is New Year's Resolutions . From what we've seen, a lot of people's New Year's Resolutions often involve money, and the stuff regarding our finances that we know we should do and feels simple. But it never really is easy, is it? The sad thing is, it's not so much the resolutions themselves that are hard, but keeping our mindset on track to follow through with t...

" Who are you going to be without your business card? When everybody else is working Monday through Friday, what the heck is going to be taking up your time? How are you going to use your skills and talents?" There are millions of women, right now, who are wondering what their life could look like after leaving behind their successful and hard-won career. They know they want to retire, but with de...

As human beings, we crave certainty. We want to know what's going to happen and to know that we're going to be okay. When looking into the financial future, we have to realize that a key ingredient of any analysis is assumptions or, to be blunt, guesses. Stephanie and Kevin tell us, however, that guessing isn't wrong. It serves a purpose. It's an ongoing exercise that narrows down the cone of unce...

Many of us are fortunate enough to have parents who are living. That means that someday, they may need care. What are the impacts of a parent's need for care on our lives? Today we welcome Certified Senior Advisor Lindsey Poeth to Take Back Retirement. Lindsey shares great information on the types of care, but more importantly how to start to talk about it with your family members. The most import...

What do we need our money to do for us in "retirement?" Yes, pay our regular bills and hopefully some fun along the way. But there's more to it, and important pieces that people often overlook. Stephanie and Kevin share a helpful framework for thinking about financial needs, and what type of assets are best suited to provide each out. Note The Four L's is borrowed from renowned retirement research...

Many people picture moving into retirement as: One day you're working and the next day you're retired. As we learn from life transition expert Randi Levin, CEO & founder of Randi Levin Coaching,moving into retirement is best done with preparation. It does not have to be an overnight event. In this episode of Take Back Retirement we walk through different ways to approach this major life transition...

Building your retirement income plan can become complex.  There's a lot to put together. You know what assets you have, but how do you organize all of these tools to work together to create sustainable income?    It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. The first step is to separate the pieces into categories. Even though everyone's pieces will look a little different, Stephanie and Kevin help you see h...

There is no right way to retire. Even if you don't do everything you had hoped to do, you can still build a plan so that you can do more of the things you want and less of the stuff you don't. In this episode we're Taking Back Retirement by redefining the old image and definition of this phase of life.    Key topics discussed:  The cultural change between generations. (00:04) Redefining retirement...

When you were young, you wanted to do everything! You had the time but not the money to do it all.  When you started working and maybe raising a family, you had more money, but not the time.  Now that you're nearing "retirement," whatever that means, you ideally have the money AND time to do what you want.  But now what? How do you turn savings into income that is going to support everything you w...

Welcome to the Take Back Retirement podcast! Where two financial planners help women age 50 and better break down the myths and mysteries of retirement so they can gain clarity and take action around their next chapter.    The show will be a combination of conversations between hosts Stephanie McCullough and Kevin Gaines, interviews with subject-matter experts, and conversations with women who hav...