The Retirement Trainer

Business owners have a lot of choices when it comes to providing employee benefits, and one of the biggest benefits available is the 401(k). However, many employers don’t know how they work, what their liability is, or how to protect themselves.  If you’ve had a job with benefits, you’ve likely had a 401(k), but implementing one as an employer is another story entirely. Today, we’re walking throug...

For many people, the 401(k) is one of the biggest parts of their retirement portfolios. In times of great uncertainty, and especially of market volatility, many want to know how to protect their most valuable assets. Especially after the Great Recession of 2008, it’s easy to want to make rash decisions. However, it is a great time to assess your overall risk and understand how best to protect your...

In the previous episode of this podcast, we explored what taxes currently mean for retirees - and why taxes are the most expensive thing in almost every retirement plan.  If you save the wrong way, you’ll be penalized for it. If you were so lucky as to live to be 115 years old, you’d be required to withdraw 50% of your pre-tax retirement accounts each year - and no matter what age you are, your re...

Taxes are the single biggest expense that people have in retirement. Everyone wants to have a plan in place to deal with them, but few know how to do it well.  When you retire, paying taxes on Social Security and even on ordinary income can be voluntary, but only if you have the right plan in place. With the national debt rapidly rising and no predictable budget set by Congress for several years i...

Many people buy the wrong life insurance products. It’s easy to make bad decisions when you don’t have a concrete financial plan in place, and as a result, you may end up purchasing products that don’t cover all your needs.  There are no “bad” or “good” types of life insurance products. There are simply insurance products that do or don’t serve you, and a proper financial plan ensures that you and...

We are all living in one of the craziest, most volatile markets in history. To get through it, you need a plan, and that plan needs to change over the course of your life to ensure you conserve when you need to, have cash flow, and can make transitions with confidence and ease. These are the core concepts of age-based investing - looking at risk as part of your plan to achieve safety, income, and...

In last week’s episode , we started a deep dive into annuities: what they are, how they work, and why they might (or might not) make sense in your retirement portfolio. If you haven’t yet, we recommend you listen to that episode first, then come back to today’s.  More than anything else, you need to remember that whether you’re talking about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or,...

When many people think of annuities, they say, “Oh my gosh, that’s horrible.” Many people either love or hate them, but this is almost never the right perspective to take. Why is this? It’s simple: many financial planners can’t clearly explain where it makes sense to use annuities or make sense of the complicated industry terms surrounding them. Annuities are one of many investing tools available...

As you transition into retirement, you’re likely looking to understand how to reduce mortgage debt and downsize without burning through your savings. There are lots of ways to do it, and lots of important questions to ask along the way. This is more true right now than ever before. With housing markets as hot as they are, it’s become very easy to downsize and end up spending more each month. It’s...

If you have kids, no matter what financial shape you and your family are in, you’re probably wondering how you’re going to pay for college. You’re probably wondering what your options are. You may need to know what the FAFSA is, what scholarships are available, and if they’re needs or merit-based. You’re also probably astounded by the cost of college. It has risen eight times more than wages have...

Over the years, people have been able to take hardship withdrawals and loans against retirement plans to cover emergency medical expenses, tuition, rent, mortgage payments, repairs, funerals, and other sudden and unexpected costs. However, the rules regarding these withdrawals and loans, the amount of money available to you, and the penalties for taking this money are extraordinarily complicated -...

Market volatility is real, and we’ve seen it in full force this year. On multiple occasions, we’ve seen markets swing over 6 percent in just one day of trading. Things are changing minute by minute, and the COVID-19 crisis has created a pattern of ongoing economic and political unrest that we’re unlikely to emerge from in the near future. If you have decades left to build wealth and plan your reti...

If you and your spouse have worked multiple jobs over the course of your life, you may have old 401(k) plans with former employers scattered all over the place. In fact, we’ve worked with clients with over a dozen plans sitting around that haven’t been seen, updated, or touched at all in years - or even decades. These zombie 401(k)s can turn into substantial tax bills and IRS penalties if you’re n...

Our country’s response to the COVID-19 crisis seems to be changing not just day-by-day, but minute-by-minute. Between the CARES Act, the stimulus package, PPP loans, the HEROES Act recently passed in the House, and other forms of financial relief, it’s never been harder to make sense of what’s available - or how to take advantage of it. Helping me navigate the COVID-19 stimulus is Doug Mayr. Doug...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues all across the world, we’ve seen some of the most discouraging jobs and unemployment reports in recent history. A lot of investors are worried right now, and it’s easy to jump to the worst possible conclusions. While this is certainly a crisis, for many people, it’s also a navigable one - and there are definitely things you should and shouldn’t do over the next f...

After an 11 year bull run, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 has proven to be the real deal from both a health and economic perspective. After over a month of binge watching our favorite TV shows and reading and watching the news, everyone is concerned. There is a lot of weight on our shoulders right now as Americans, and as we oversee financial plans for people transitioning into retirement at th...

Today we're digging in a bit deeper and talking more about The SECURE Act with estate planning attorney, Logan Phillips.  The thing that the SECURE Act did was really change retirement planning for people. Logan says it benefits individuals who are saving for retirement, while it kind of hurts the individuals who they plan to leave their retirement to. Those saving for retirement, get to save for...

The SECURE Act, also known as the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, came into effect on January 1st, 2020. Designed to make it easier for Americans to access tax-advantaged accounts and stop people from outliving their assets, it made another round of sweeping, monumental changes to the tax code. This means that even if you’ve just created what you think is a robus...

How you can the take financial regrets of others, and turn them into a preventative education for you.

What's the deal with the year 2025? And other tips to protect yourself from rising taxes.

It seemed easier for our parents and grandparents. Now, the effort required to prepare for a happy retirement has practically become a second job. How can "uncomplicate" how complicated retirement has become?

Ed talks with Pat Puhl, President of “Families For A Cure,” about growing from a single golf tournament to licensed nonprofit that’s raised over $1 Million for cancer research and patient care programs.

Rather than ways to save and keep more of your money, we’re talking about the importance and benefits of giving it away.

Ed chats with attorney Logan Philipps, on ways to better protect yourself, your family and your assets by building a proper estate plan.

Understanding what you have, who you want to leave those things to, and how you want those things to be received, is as important a plan as figuring out your retirement income, yet most of us neglect this area of planning. How to start thinking ahead about what you want to leave behind.