Once you hit retirement, you'll probably have money in several types of accounts: a 401(k) from work, some personal money in a brokerage account, your regular checking account at the bank, and maybe some Roth IRAs, to name a few.
Once it's time to start withdrawing that money, the important question you should ask yourself is this: from which account(s) should my funds be taken out, and in what order?  Do I spend my fully-taxable IRA money first, do I defer and use the Roth or personal funds, or some combination of all of them?
Getting it wrong can be costly, and detrimental to your financial health.  Find out more about the "Spending Order of Funds" with podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on this week's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

There are many ways to save for retirement.  Two of the most popular are the 401(k) and the IRA. Both are savings vehicles, but both have different attributes that may make one of them better for you. 

There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Do you need a tax break now? Are you able to deduct contributions to an IRA? Does your company have a match on any of your 401(k) contributions? These are important questions that you need to consider.

Learn more about what should factor into your decision with podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick "The Professor" Plum, CFP® on today's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

You may have heard that stocks are too volatile for retired people to own. In fact, there’s an old rule-of-thumb formula that says you should decrease your stock holdings by 1 percent every year and replace them with bonds.  These generic “guidelines,” though, are hardly prudent advice for most people, because everyone’s situation requires a different approach. 

It may actually be more beneficial for some people to have a greater exposure to stocks as they get older.  What counts more is having a withdrawal strategy that takes into account the short-term risks of investing in stocks by creating the time – and cash flow – necessary to overcome those risks.  

Find out more from podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® on this week’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future! 

We're half way through 2024, and it's time to get your financial house in order!  What moves, if any, should you have made at this point?  What about going forward? There's still time to do some tax management, maybe take a look at your 401(k) plan, and decide how you may want to allocate your investments before the year is out.

So what's left to do? There's still plenty of time, but then again, the clock is ticking.  What should be on YOUR mid-year money checklist? Find out from podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on this week's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

What’s your most valuable asset when it comes to investing? Is it maybe knowing the right stock to buy and when? How about a spreadsheet of things like P/E ratios, or being diversified across dozens of different classes?  No – as it turns out, your most valuable asset with investing is time. 

The stock market, despite what you may have heard, is a long-term game. The daily, weekly, and monthly noise you hear on TV and online about why stocks went up or down is nothing more than that – noise.  But over long time periods, magical things can happen to people who are regular savers and who don’t panic when times get rough. 

So how do you acquire the time you need for that “magic” to happen when you have bills you need to pay right now?  Learn more from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick “The Professor” Plum, CFP® on today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

When you buy a bond, you might expect that the amount of interest stated on the coupon is the amount of interest that you’ll be receiving.  So if you have, say, a $10,000 bond paying 5 percent interest, you probably figure it will pay you $500 each year. 

But that isn’t always the case.  This is where it’s important to understand not just the bond’s current yield, but probably more importantly, the bond’s yield to maturity. There may be a difference between the bond’s present cash flow and what you’ll ultimately receive after all interest payments and the return of the principal. 

Sound confusing? Let’s clear it up.  Tune in to today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future as podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® tell you what you need to know before – and after – you purchase your bonds! 

It’s been said that the most important rule of finance is to not consistently mess things up.  In other words, you need to survive the short-term chaos – and there’s lots of it – to reap the potential long-term rewards. If you can buy enough time to weather the constant storms, you may find yourself in a very good position down the road.

The Bucket Strategy® is something we’ve talked about for decades.  What we love is that its aim is to buy enough time for those above-noted potential long-term gains to become reality.  By matching your assets to your liabilities, you may stand a much lower chance of running out of money before you run out of time. And isn’t that what financial planning is all about?

Learn more from podcast host Johnny Dean and Rick “The Professor” Plum, CFP® on this “don’t miss” episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

Many times in life, we see how one career field translates extremely well into another.  Engineering is a great example of this. A good engineer needs to know what a project’s goal is, put the pieces together in a way that works, and then stress test it to make sure it works in all conditions.

Financial planning is a lot like this. What does each individual want to achieve financially? What do we have available to work with? How can these pieces fit together to potentially reach their goals? And how will that financial plan work under extreme conditions, both good and bad?

Our guest today is former engineer and current financial planner, Patrick Klacka, CFP®, who talks about how his math and engineering skills prepared him so well for the financial planning field.  Tune in and find out more with podcast host Johnny Dean and “Professor” Rick Plum, CFP® on today’s episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

If you're at all familiar with the Roth IRA, you probably know that there are income limits for people who want to make a contribution to a Roth. These limits generally go up a little bit each year, but anyone who makes over a certain amount of money is ineligible to make a Roth contribution.

But that doesn't mean those with a high income have no access to a Roth, or to certain Roth strategies.  Everyone loves something that's tax free, and that notion is especially attractive to people who may be in a high tax bracket when it comes time to distribute those funds.

What Roth can strategies can you employ if you're a high-earner?  Find out from podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on this week's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!

Are you in line to inherit an IRA? While inheriting almost any asset is generally a good thing, it's helpful to know the rules - mainly tax rules - that come along with it, especially if you plan on keeping as much of that money as you can.

Some new laws went into effect on inherited IRAs within the past few months, and when you combine those with the regulations that were already in place, it can be rather confusing to know what to expect. What's the best course of action so that you don't wind up paying more in taxes and penalties than you should?

Find out all about it from podcast host Johnny Dean and "Professor" Rick Plum, CFP® on today's episode of Managing Your Financial Future!