A new study says the average retired couple needs $1.16 million to retire comfortably. Scary headline — until you do the math. Because retirement was never about reaching a number. It's about the paycheck that number can produce.In this week's Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon take the "magic number" apart piece by piece. They trace where $1.16 million actually comes from — $84,000 in average spending, $37,700 in Social Security, and a 4% withdrawal covering the gap — then show what the headline can't see: sequence of returns risk, the tax code, health events, and the market's habit of dropping 25–30% when you can least afford it. The centerpiece is a tale of three couples: Couple A with $1.8 million and no guaranteed income beyond Social Security, Couple B with $950,000 and a teacher's pension, and Couple C with $900,000 who built their own pension with an annuity — and ended up more secure than the couple with twice the money.What you'll learn:

• Where the $1.16 million figure really comes from — and why the study converts it to income immediately
• Why the race-to-a-number mindset is programmed into us, and why it fails in retirement
• The tax reality: 12% vs. 22% brackets, Social Security taxation, RMDs at 73, Medicare's hidden 3–5% "tax," and climbing capital gains rates
• The bucket strategy: cash for years 0–3, buffered strategies and dividends for 3–7, growth for 7+
• Why 1% of inefficiency on a 4% drawdown is really 25% of your income
• Couple A vs. B vs. C: how guaranteed income beats a bigger portfolio
• The timing trap: why buying the annuity after the crash locks in the loss
• Rewriting the 4% rule with 5–7% joint lifetime annuity payouts

Plus Money In The News:

• SpaceX goes public: Wall Street's sky-high price targets, the trillion-dollar valuation, and why investors stay cautious
• Trump floats an Australian-style retirement system with 12% employer contributions
• The IRA saver's match arriving in 2027: who qualifies, and why the income limits are so tight

Read the companion blog: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: https://app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Browse the full Money On Tap library: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us

• Phone: 855-226-8551
• Email: [email protected]
• Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
• Web: brayshawfinancial.com

Securities and advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Osaic Wealth, Inc. Annuity guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

Only 20–30% of the AI data centers planned through 2030 are built today. The other 70–80% — the cement, the cooling, the chips, the memory, the power — are still coming. And the companies collecting the profits from that build-out are mostly names the mainstream isn't talking about.In this week's Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon go beyond the Mag Seven and into the hidden companies powering the AI revolution. They trace how the AI trade rotated from the companies spending the money to the companies receiving it — the second-wave winners like Micron, SanDisk, Vertiv, Marvell, and Broadcom — and why Taiwan Semiconductor may be the king of the whole story. Then they go layer by layer through what's still ahead: electrical infrastructure, utilities and nuclear power, engineering, construction materials, and data center REITs.What you'll learn:

• Why only 20–30% of planned AI data centers exist — and what that means for the next decade of demand
• The rotation out of the Mag Seven: from speculation and hope to follow-the-money
• The AI stack, layer by layer: chips, memory (Micron), storage (SanDisk), cooling (Vertiv), networking (Marvell, Broadcom)
• Why Taiwan Semiconductor is the company nearly every AI player depends on
• The risks worth respecting: valuation, capex pullbacks, competition, interest rates, and tariffs
• The layers still to come: electrical, power and grid, engineering, materials, machinery, and data center REITs
• Why high conviction — knowing why you own what you own — beats chasing every headline

Plus Money In The News:

• Trump Accounts for kids launch July 4: $1,000 at birth, up to $5,000 a year — and the math that could reach seven figures by retirement
• Which financial stocks actually benefit when interest rates stay high
• Trump's rare earth agenda hits a milestone as the U.S. Army moves to break China's grip on defense metals

Read the companion blog: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: https://app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Browse the full Money On Tap library: https://www.brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us

• Phone: 855-226-8551
• Email: [email protected]
• Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
• Web: brayshawfinancial.com

Securities and advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. All other services offered through Brayshaw Financial Group, LLC are independent of Osaic Wealth, Inc.

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

Ten straight up weeks, then a sharp pullback — and if you’re two to five years on either side of retirement, the fear is real. This is the Retirement Red Zone: the last mile into and out of your retirement date, and the most fragile window in your entire financial life.This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon turn last week’s market-history conversation into a practical playbook for anyone near retirement: how to avoid the paralysis that wrecked so many retirements in 2008–2009, and what to actually do right now.What you’ll learn:

• Why a 35-year-old and a 65-year-old should do the opposite thing in a pullback
• The accumulation-to-distribution switch most people don’t know exists
• What history says: after 40 sharp selloffs since 1980, markets were higher 75% of the time a year later
• Sequence-of-returns risk — why the first five years decide everything
• Building a 1–3 year retirement runway with ~4% cash and T-bills
• Rebalancing a 60/40 that drifted to 75/25
• Diversifying away from a top-10 that’s now 40% of the S&P (8 of them tech)
• Buffered ETFs — a 20% buffer with a 12–15% cap, explained
• Foundational income, annuities, and the tax-aware withdrawal piece most firms skip

Plus Money In The News:

• Consumer prices rose 4.2% annually in May — the highest in three years (CNBC, Jeff Cox)
• Elon Musk poised to become the first trillionaire — and just how much a trillion dollars really is
• A top JP Morgan strategist’s four ways to prep your portfolio for “considerable danger” (David Kelly)

Mentioned on air: Our short sequence-of-returns risk video — watch it at brayshawfinancial.com.Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

Nearly every major index is at a record high — and everyone’s asking the same question: is this the beginning of something great, or the end of something that’s gone too far?This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon take that question apart with 75 years of market history, a few statistics that genuinely surprised them, and a clear look at what a record high means for you — whether you’re decades from retirement or already drawing income.What you’ll learn:

• The Fidelity data showing investing at an all-time high beats investing on a random day
• Why a record high is usually a signal of a healthy economy, not a top
• A walk through 1982, 1987, 1995–1999, 2000, 2009, and 2020
• Why today’s AI market looks more like 1995 than the 2000 dot-com bubble
• Why timing the market is a loser’s game — and why taking profits isn’t fear
• Sequence-of-returns risk — why the first years of retirement decide everything
• Buffered ETFs — staying in the market with downside guardrails
• Annuities with lifetime income and long-term-care riders

Plus Money In The News:

• American financial literacy hits a 10-year low — U.S. adults answered just 47% of the TIAA Institute’s 2026 questions correctly (Yahoo Finance, Kerry Hannon)
• America’s data-center build-out falls behind schedule — Google’s $80B equity raise and what it signals about AI’s real cost (WSJ, Katherine Blunt)
• Exxon chief warns oil could spike to $160–$170 a barrel as strategic reserves run thin (Fox Business, Robert McGreevy)

Mentioned on air: Our short sequence-of-returns risk video — watch it at brayshawfinancial.com.Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

61% of Americans now fear running out of money in retirement more than they fear death itself. Half of all U.S. households approaching retirement are at risk of falling short of their current standard of living.This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon sit with the topic that shows up in the conference room more than any other these days: retirement anxiety — and why so many Americans feel unprepared.What you'll learn:

• The five fears inside retirement anxiety — and which one most plans don't address
• Why retirement is structurally more anxious today than a generation ago
• The Honeymoon, the Shock, and the Reframe — the three phases of every retirement
• Why men, executives, military, and first responders are hit hardest by the identity loss
• The new 100% income rule (the old 60–70% rule of thumb is dead)
• The six-part income plan that actually reduces anxiety
• Sequence-of-returns risk — and why the first five years of retirement determine everything
• Social Security in 2026: 77% benefit, $1.5T bipartisan proposal, what it means for you
• Why phased / consulting retirement is the underrated soft landing
• The emotional plan nobody writes down — hobbies, friendships, purpose, marriage

Plus Money In The News:

• Can the stock market save Social Security? A $1.5T bipartisan proposal from Cassidy and Kaine
• Ford stock surges on a $2B (becoming $10B) pivot to stationary energy storage with CATL
• Student loan changes hit July 1 — payments rising $300–$350/month under IBR and RAP plans

Free resource: Email us with "Retirement Anxiety white paper" in the subject and we'll send the companion document.Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

Two retirees with the same balance can take wildly different incomes home — it's not about returns, it's about taxes.This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon unpack The Science of Retirement Income — How to Create Income Alpha: the practice of beating the market not by picking better stocks, but by keeping more of what you already have through tax-aware planning.What you'll learn:

• What "Income Alpha" actually means — and why it's worth 15–30% more retirement income, year after year
• How Social Security gets taxed at 0%, 50%, or 85% — and how to control which one applies to you
• The Roth IRA conversion ladder: filling the 22% bracket today to avoid the 30%+ bracket later
• The lesser-known after-tax account strategy — converting future ordinary-income tax into capital-gains tax
• Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) — the single highest-leverage move for charitable retirees
• Donor-Advised Funds and Charitable Trusts — stacking giving with Roth conversion years
• The hidden IRMAA Medicare tax — and the income thresholds that can cost you $1,000–$3,000 a year
• The Widow Tax Trap — the most damaging tax in retirement and how to plan around it
• Why the year of a spouse's passing is the last big planning window — and what to do with it
• What 1–2 years of tax returns will tell a good planner that your investment statement never will

Plus Money In The News:

• Weight-loss drug developers line up to tap a $150B market (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, the pill-vs-shot race)
• Nike stock tumbles 13% to an 11-year low on China weakness
• Average tax refund up 11% from a year ago — IRS data and what it means for inflation

Free resource: Email us with "Charitable Giving Booklet" in the subject and we'll send our charitable giving guide.Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

🎉 Welcome to the 400th episode of Money On Tap. Nine years. Four hundred conversations. To celebrate, the first four callers to 855-226-8551 each get their pick from four pieces of MOT swag. Phone calls only — email won't count.This week, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon close The Railroads of… trilogy with the one that may make all the rest run faster: quantum computing.What you'll learn:

• What a qubit actually is — and why "both 0 and 1 at once" changes everything
• The three investable layers: cloud platforms · hardware (semis & cryogenics) · software
• The four pure-play names: Rigetti (RGTI), IonQ (IONQ), D-Wave (QBTS), Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) — and what their +250% to +5,700% trailing moves really mean
• The four big-tech quantum plays: IBM, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon
• The four ETFs to research: QTUM, ARKQ, BOTZ, ROBO
• The barbell approach for taking speculative exposure without betting the farm
• Why the honest timeline says mid-2030s — and the energy problem nobody's talking about
• How space, robotics, and quantum intersect — and why the railroads series mattered

Plus Money In The News:

• Spotify and Peloton team up on a global fitness content hub
• The AI splurge is costing big tech its workforce — Oracle plans to cut 40% of its workforce
• Have software stocks reached the extreme washout yet? (And what the "SaaS-pocalypse" means for the next 12 months)

Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

4.3 million industrial robots are already deployed globally. Robot costs have dropped 50% in 30 years. Payback periods are now 1 to 3 years. The reshoring of American manufacturing isn't a forecast — it's a buy order.This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon continue the series with The Railroads of Robotics — the picks-and-shovels playbook for physical AI and the next great industrial build-out.What you'll learn:

• Why three forces — reshoring, labor shortage, and 1–3 year robot payback — make automation inevitable
• The four investable layers: robots · AI systems · software · hardware
• A walk-through of the public names: Rockwell Automation, Teradyne, Emerson Electric, NVIDIA, Tesla (Optimus), AeroVironment, Applied Materials, Autodesk
• How cobots are reshaping skilled-trades work — and what the NVIDIA CEO's "three-day work week" prediction really means
• Five robotics-themed ETFs walked through: ROBO, BOTZ, IBOT, ARKQ, ROBT
• What to tell the kids and grandkids about which jobs will actually exist in 10 years
• The geopolitical risk that could shelve this entire build-out overnight

Plus Money In The News:

• United Airlines hikes fares up to 20% — CEO admits passing 100% of jet-fuel cost to consumers
• Musk vs. Altman: a $134B suit heading to court while SpaceX ($1.25T) and OpenAI ($850B) IPOs loom
• Adobe announces a $25B buyback (25% of market cap) while Big Tech keeps laying off — and the buyback nuance most investors miss

Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"
  
  

Space just became an asset class. Q1 2026 alone saw $36 billion deployed — and the SpaceX IPO could be the first trillion-dollar offering in history.This week on Money On Tap, Ben Brayshaw and Dan Michelon walk through what they're calling the railroads of space — the picks-and-shovels companies quietly building the rails that everything else will ride on.What you'll learn:

• Why the SpaceX IPO is the single biggest catalyst hanging over the entire sector
• The three investable layers: access · infrastructure · application & data
• A walk-through of the public names already in motion — RKLB, ASTS, IRDM, PL, RDW
• Where robotics fits — and why Honeybee Robotics and Redwire matter more than people think
• The four real risks: capital intensity, government dependence, boom-bust speculation, and SpaceX disruption
• Why an actively managed space-themed ETF may be the most prudent way for retail investors to participate

Plus Money In The News:

• Active ETFs cross $1 trillion — and why the cost trade-off is worth it for many investors
• Round Hill's DRAM ETF pulls $1B in 10 days, giving U.S. investors backdoor access to Samsung and SK Hynix
• $4 gas drives consumer confidence to a record-low 47.6% — lower than 2008 — and inflation expectations climb toward 4.8%

Read the companion blog: brayshawfinancial.com/blog
Schedule a free consultation: app.greminders.com/t/9f3ce72e/initialconsulta
Full Money On Tap episode library: brayshawfinancial.com/money-on-tapContact Us
Phone: 855-226-8551
Email: [email protected]
Office: 116 South River Road, Bedford, NH 03110
Web: brayshawfinancial.com

• Do I really need $1.16 million to retire? Not necessarily. That figure assumes $84,000 in annual spending funded by Social Security plus a 4% portfolio withdrawal. Guaranteed income changes the math: a couple with a pension or annuity covering their core expenses can retire securely on far less, because their withdrawal rate drops and market downturns stop threatening their paycheck. The right question isn't "what's my number?" — it's "where will my income come from?"