The purchases that drain a retirement plan are rarely the obvious splurges. This episode walks through seven of them, from the oversized house and the new luxury car to the vacation home, the timeshare, and the remodel right before you retire. You get the real math on each one, plus the honest exceptions worth making.

• Why the biggest house the bank approves is built for the bank's interest, and the smarter number to buy at
• The true weekly cost of a vacation home you use only a few weeks a year, and when renting is the better deal
• The one question that decides whether a purchase pays you or costs you for the rest of your life

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7xJ5Dp4CjU

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

Losing a job before retirement can leave you better off than walking away on your own terms. Severance and unemployment only show up when the company ends it, and a single line on your exit paperwork decides whether you collect either one. This episode covers what that paperwork has to say, what to keep quiet about while the package is still in play, and how to turn a funded runway into a bigger retirement.

• The difference between fired, laid off, and quitting, and what it does to your severance and unemployment
• Why claiming Social Security the month you lose your job can cut your check about 30% for life
• How a year without a paycheck lets you move traditional savings into a Roth at a fraction of the tax you paid while working

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebcET1G2gFk

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

Most families learn how nursing home costs work too late, usually in a hospital hallway. This episode breaks down the two parts of the trap: the Medicare coverage gap and Medicaid estate recovery. It also covers what the healthy spouse gets to keep and why one popular move, gifting the house to the kids, usually backfires.

• What Medicare actually covers in a nursing home, the 100-day cliff, and why it pays nothing for daily custodial care
• How Medicaid spend-down and estate recovery can put a lien on your "exempt" home after death, and what the healthy spouse keeps
• Why gifting the house away usually backfires, and the trust and five-year timing that actually protect it

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KINAVcLhNEo

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

This is the plain-English walkthrough of how a self-directed IRA actually works: what it can hold, what it really costs, and the prohibited-transaction rules that keep you safe. You'll see why operating a rental inside one is usually the wrong move, and why secured mortgage notes fit those same rules so well.

• Why your IRA can legally hold real estate, private mortgage notes, and private loans, plus the short list of things it can't
• The fee most people never see: how a "free" brokerage IRA can cost more than a self-directed custodian's flat fee
• Why running a rental inside an IRA wastes depreciation, 1031 exchanges, and capital-gains rates, and what to hold instead

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMpuNi_MDQY

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

Retiring overseas gets sold as the move that makes a smaller nest egg work. This episode walks through the costs that don't show up on the cost-of-living blogs: healthcare, US taxes that follow you for life, currency swings, account access, visas and property, and the price of coming home, with the real numbers on each.

• Why the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion shelters almost none of a retiree's income, and what you still owe the IRS every year abroad
• How dropping Medicare to save money triggers a permanent penalty that can double your premium for life
• The exchange-rate and account-access traps that can erase the cost-of-living savings you moved for

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWd_5NDXuVw

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

The day your earned income stops, a whole stack of things disappears at once. Some you can rebuild in a year. A few close permanently, and the only time to deal with them is while you still have a paycheck coming in. This episode sorts twelve of them into what you can rebuild and what's gone for good.

• Which retirement-account and insurance doors close for good the day your earned income stops
• Why a market loss you'd shrug off while working can turn permanent once you retire, and the income floor that prevents it
• The 2026 ACA subsidy cliff (around $62,600 single / $84,600 for a couple) and why your bridge-year income decides which side you land on

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frLNdk0Seu8

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

At a dealership, announcing cash can make you the least profitable customer in the room, which means less movement on the price. This episode breaks down where dealers actually make their money, the finance-then-prepay move that captures the discount without the debt, and the real opportunity cost of draining your capital to pay cash once you're retired.

• Why the finance office, not the showroom floor, is where the dealer makes the most money
• How to use dealer financing to capture a better price, then pay the loan off in week one
• The simple rate spread that tells you when to pay cash and when to keep your money working

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlI_WCvBFkQ

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

There are actually three crossovers worth knowing about. The first happens when portfolio growth exceeds your contributions. The second when it exceeds your earned income. The third, the original 1992 Vicki Robin definition, when income from your assets covers your monthly expenses. That last one is the only crossover that survives a flat market year.

• Where each of the three crossovers actually sits in dollars (and the rough 20x rule of thumb)
• Why the original crossover point got quietly redefined between 1992 and 2016
• The four moves to make once you cross over, especially the RMD trap that hits at 73

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWGsGkDtu3o

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

Elder fraud cost Americans $81.5 billion in 2024, and a huge portion of it started with something someone said out loud. This episode walks through the eight disclosures that quietly expose you to financial risk after 55, from your retirement timeline to your Social Security amount to the one almost nobody talks about: your "big money" window.

• Why announcing your retirement timeline at work often backfires
• How your Social Security amount can make you a target for imposter scams
• The "big money" window right before and after retirement that scammers know exists

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2MJ19oD1BY

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.

Most people think they're one tier above or below where they actually are. This episode walks through the Federal Reserve's retirement wealth breakdown and shows you what monthly income, daily stress, and real lifestyle look like from the bottom tier to the top 1%.

• The net worth range for each of the 6 wealth tiers
• How income structure (not just net worth) changes everything at levels 5 and 6
• How to live like someone 1-2 tiers above where your savings put you

Take the free Retirement Income Roadmap (7 questions, about 30 seconds): incomeoverwealth.com/map

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9YmtNGyUu4

This episode is educational and focused on strategy and math. Always consult a qualified tax or financial professional before making personal financial decisions.