annuity
I read another “annuities are terrible” article today. The arguments were familiar: high fees, complexity, opportunity cost, and limited upside. And you know what? Some of that criticism is valid, but not for how I actually use Fixed Index Annuities (FIAs) with my clients. Here’s something important to establish
investment portfolio
The Gap Years Mistake
investment portfolio
Why perfectly reasonable assumptions break down in real retirement life
investment portfolio
If you’re 55-75 with retirement accounts, the OBBBA just raised your future tax bill. Not because of what it did to tax rates today. But because it increased tomorrow’s deficits. Deficits today mean tax hikes on visible wealth tomorrow. This is a matter of math, not politics. Here’
investment portfolio
We've covered a lot of ground in this series. You understand why pensioners have peace of mind that self-funded retirees often lack, and you know the mechanics of building your own Income Floor to bridge that gap. But knowing the strategy and actually implementing it are two different
Newsletter
In the first two parts of this series, we looked at why pensioners sleep better than self-funded retirees, even when they have less money in the bank. We explored the psychological weight of managing retirement income when every dollar depends on market performance, and we identified the real question you
retirement
Like most people, I’ve been watching the forecast this week. They’re calling for a big winter storm to move through our area beginning Saturday night, bringing a good amount of ice and snow. Maybe six inches. Maybe 18. Maybe it shifts slightly north, and we get rain. The
retirement
Previously, we looked at two types of retirees: the Pensioner and the Self-Funded Retiree. They show us that retirement income can be approached in very different ways, and that peace of mind isn’t just about the size of your savings. Today, I want to dig deeper into why pensioners
retirement
The two types of retirees
retirement
The woman sitting across from me had $1.8 million in her retirement accounts. She was 68 years old. Healthy. No debt. Pension coming in. Social Security started. And she wouldn’t book the trip to see her grandkids. “I know I should go,” she told me during our tax