Freedom for Retirement™

📄 Get the free one-page chart that shows where a Roth conversion starts to cost more: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6a6e0cd7d1eab6461dcabb63/6ac8b942b8335498f04d5560_22-38%20-%20Roth%20Conversions%20and%20the%20Senior%20Deduction%20Image.pdf

Roth conversion advice says to fill your tax bracket. After 65, the same converted dollars can also shrink the senior deduction you were counting on.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, a fee-only fiduciary firm, shows where the old advice still works. Conversions that stay inside the lower brackets leave the deduction alone. Beyond them, each dollar you convert can cost more than your bracket suggests, and many people never spot the difference on their tax return.

This episode covers:

•    How much to convert to Roth and keep the full senior deduction

•    Whether to spread conversions across several years or finish in one

•    Why one big conversion year can raise your Medicare premiums through IRMAA

•    What waiting for the deduction to expire can cost you in larger RMDs

•    When this year's conversion must be finished, with no way to undo it

Size your conversion with your own numbers, not a rule of thumb.

🎥 The new senior deduction, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-H-zr2y8Pk

🎥 Medicare surcharges (IRMAA), explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYukNMVm5M

🎥 Required minimum distributions, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KPGAeO5sO4

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

A business exit strategy starts three to five years before the sale, not when a buyer shows up. By then, most of what decides your outcome is settled.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, a fee-only fiduciary firm, compares two owners who sell similar businesses at the same price. The first spent years working out what the sale needs to fund and measures the offer against that number. The second hears a large price with nothing to compare it to and is guessing.

This episode covers:

• Why a sale to family or employees can leave you carrying the risk

• How payment terms and deal structure change what you keep

• What a buyer sees when every major customer still calls you

• Who belongs on your team before the letter of intent

• When the sale year raises your Medicare premiums two years later

Plan the time after the sale as carefully as the money.

🎥 Medicare surcharges (IRMAA), explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYukNMVm5M

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

No tax on Social Security never became law. What passed is a $6,000 deduction for people 65 and older, and your income decides whether you see a dollar of it.

Josh Duncan explains how the deduction works when you file: $6,000 per person 65 or older, $12,000 for a couple who both qualify, claimed on the new Schedule 1-A whether you itemize or take the standard deduction, and stacked on the extra standard deduction you already had at 65.

This episode covers:

• How combined income decides the taxable share of your benefit
• Why the $25,000 and $32,000 thresholds have not moved since 1983
• Whether the 6.2% payroll tax changed for anyone still working
• Where the deduction starts shrinking and where it reaches zero
• When the deduction expires and what that opens up for Roth conversions

Your own number settles this, not the headline you read.

🎥 Roth conversions, explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7suIjH8-Rk

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

Gifted stock carries your cost basis to your children, tax bill included. Josh explains why that is still no reason to hold everything until you're gone.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, a fee-only fiduciary firm, treats the tax cost as one input among several: how much you can afford to give, what your children need right now, and how appreciated the asset is. A gift you can't comfortably afford isn't generous. It's a risk to your own plan. Cash carries no capital gains question at all, which makes it the simplest thing to give now.

This episode covers:

• What to give first when one position holds most of your gain
• Where a joint account resets in full and where only half does
• Why revocable trusts keep the step-up and irrevocable trusts often lose it
• Whether an inherited IRA or 401(k) ever gets a step-up
• When to get the appraisal that makes the new basis defensible

Work through your own numbers first, so that when you give, you're deciding on purpose.

🎥 How an inherited IRA works today, including the 10-year rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds5ATumKo-Y

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

Letting your health savings account grow is the right move for some people and the wrong move for others, and the difference is cash flow, not discipline.

An HSA is the only account in the tax code where money goes in untaxed, grows untaxed, and comes out untaxed for qualified medical expenses. Most people collect two of the three and treat the account like a coupon for this year’s doctor visits. Josh Duncan, fee-only fiduciary and partner at F5 Financial Planning, names the one condition that has to be true before paying medical bills out of pocket makes sense.

This episode covers:

• How an HSA beats a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA on taxes
• What the 2026 contribution limits and eligibility thresholds are
• Why two people with the same balance need different plans
• Whether spending your HSA on this year’s copays is doing it wrong
• When Medicare enrollment stops contributions but not tax-free withdrawals
• How to compare last year’s numbers to find which side you are on

The account is there to help you, and there is nothing to prove by leaving a balance untouched that you need.

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

Two changes to the charitable deduction take effect in 2026, and a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA sidesteps both of them.

Starting in 2026, itemized charitable gifts only count once they exceed half a percent of adjusted gross income, and the top value of any itemized deduction falls from 37 cents on the dollar to 35 cents. Required distributions push a retiree’s income higher every year, so the people who give the most absorb the biggest hit. Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, a fee-only fiduciary firm, walks through the change and the one strategy that bypasses it entirely.

This episode covers:

• Why depositing your RMD and then writing a check does not qualify
• What the 2026 limit is per person and which accounts are eligible
• How giving from your IRA can also lower your Medicare premiums
• Whether the strategy still helps when you take the standard deduction
• When to call your custodian so the transfer counts this year

The right structure, not just the right amount, determines how much of your generosity the tax code lets you keep.

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

Medicare will not pay for most long-term care. The costs land on you, and there are exactly three ways to cover them.

Josh Duncan puts numbers on the risk a 65-year-old actually faces: about a 70% chance of needing care someday, paid help at home near $80,000 a year, a private nursing-home room near $130,000. The dangerous cases are the long ones, and they land late in retirement, when a plan has the least room to recover. F5 is a fee-only firm—we sell no insurance and earn no commissions, so the only agenda is the plan.

This episode covers:

• Why Medicare pays for rehab but not years of custodial care
• What the 100-day skilled nursing benefit actually includes
• How to test whether your portfolio could absorb a five-year care event
• When insurance makes sense and why hybrid policies took over the market
• Whether Medicaid's spend-down rules leave your spouse protected

Decide on purpose now, while every option is still open.

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

Most people don't need the annuity they're being sold. The simple kind that can help pays the seller least, and the complicated kind gets pushed hardest.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, sells no annuities and earns nothing on them, so nothing here rides on what you decide. He slows down on the numbers a sales presentation moves past: indexed and variable contracts can stack fees of 2, 3, even 4 percent a year, lock your money up for six to ten years, and pay the salesperson 5, 7, even 10 percent of what you put in the moment you sign. The better question is not whether annuities are good or bad. It is whether you have the one problem they solve, the fear of outliving your savings, and whether this is the best way to solve it.

This episode covers:

• Why buying an annuity for growth is the most common mistake
• How an insurer can change an indexed annuity's formula after you own it
• What four questions to get plain answers to before you sign
• Who an annuity fits and who would be insuring a risk they don't carry
• Whether delaying Social Security buys more guaranteed income than any annuity

Guaranteed income is a good goal. An annuity is one road to it, and rarely the first one to travel.

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

🔗 Download the Social Security Claiming reference sheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s0jIZgcTOkXjTFnqNg18nyHXMFcXfOWs/view?usp=sharing

The Social Security break-even calculator points at age 80 and asks whether you'll live that long. The better question is which account funds the wait.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, walks the claiming window with 2026 numbers: a permanent 30% cut for starting at 62, 124% of your full benefit for waiting until 70, and a $720-a-month raise that costs roughly $108,000 of portfolio withdrawals to buy. He then follows those bridge years into territory the calculators skip, the lowest-income stretch of your retirement, where Roth conversion room opens up and closes for good once RMDs arrive.

This episode covers:

• Why the delayed-credit clock stops at 70
• How the 2026 earnings test withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 earned above $24,480
• Whether the new $6,000 senior deduction really ends taxes on Social Security
• What a surviving spouse keeps when the first check stops
• When waiting backfires

The government sets the percentages. Everything after that is yours to plan.

🎥 Roth conversions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7suIjH8-Rk

🎥 Which account to spend first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz2mS1dYbtE

🎥 When the first spouse dies video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALn8Wy3cgI

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.

🔗 Download the beneficiary payout reference sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s1jxjM2eclB-_ueHo0P9qMIoTOYLQtQk/view?usp=sharing

The stretch IRA is gone. The 10-year rule forces heirs to empty an inherited IRA on a hard deadline, and many owe a distribution every single year.

Josh Duncan, partner at F5 Financial Planning, walks through the IRS final regulations of 2024, the penalty relief that expired with them, and the 25% excise tax now waiting for heirs who work from the old understanding. Getting it wrong costs twice: once on the tax rate, once on a penalty most beneficiaries have never heard of.

This episode covers:

• Who still qualifies for a lifetime payout instead of 10 years
• Why a grandchild never qualifies for the minor-child exception
• How two sisters inheriting $500,000 each end with different tax bills
• What a Roth conversion changes for the child who inherits it
• Whether naming beneficiaries account by account beats an even split

A retirement account that’s efficient for you and expensive for your children hasn’t finished doing its job.

🎥 Watch our video on Roth conversions next: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7suIjH8-Rk

👉 Work with us at https://www.f5fp.com

About F5 Financial Planning:

At F5 Financial Planning, we help individuals and families align their finances with what matters most so they can live lives of Freedom and Significance. We are a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm, meaning we don’t earn commissions or sell products — our only commitment is to our clients’ best interests. We provide comprehensive financial planning, investment management, tax-efficient strategies, and retirement planning for families, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. Our team serves clients nationwide through virtual meetings and from offices in Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

At F5, our goal is simple: to help you gain confidence, clarity, and control over your financial future so you can focus on the people and passions that matter most. 

Visit https://www.f5fp.com to learn more about our services and planning process.

*****

Advisory services are offered through F5 Financial Planning, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered personalized financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Viewing these videos does not create an advisory relationship with F5 Financial. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a qualified professional.