As strong as the stock market has performed for much of the last decade, a recent stretch of volatile behavior provided a powerful reminder that what goes up must eventually come down. Whether the next big stock market slump is weeks away or years away, it’s vital that people take steps in advance to ensure their assets are positioned for when the next bear market hits. This show provides listeners with steps to “prepare for the bear” — seven suggestions, from asset diversification to stress testing to annuitizing a portion of their retirement assets, that can help minimize the damage a bear market causes, so they remain on track financially throughout retirement, even when the stock market takes a sharp turn south.

To build a solid financial foundation for retirement, people must make certain assumptions — about their investments, their longevity, their expenses, their income needs and more. The challenge for those heading toward retirement is to make sure the assumptions they make are well supported and applied the right way for their unique situation, lest they put their financial future at risk. This show provides listeners with financial assumptions to address as retirement approaches, with insights on why each is important and how to properly incorporate them into a broader financial strategy.

In lieu of crystal balls, many people like to make plans for the future. A trip to Europe over the summer, a kitchen remodel in the fall, a dinner date with a long-time friend next week. But what about your retirement? Let alone the funds to pay for it? What plans have you made for that endeavor? An endeavor that will last two decades or more for most of us. This show provides straightforward planning strategies to address five common events that have the potential to disrupt or derail just about any retirement portfolio if left unaccounted for.

Gone are the days when most working people had a pension income waiting for them once they retired — regular payments that were guaranteed to last as long as people needed them to. This show provides pre-retirees who lack a true pension a series of straightforward steps to build lifetime retirement income for themselves by coordinating a range of different sources, including retirement plan assets, Social Security benefits, money parked in bank accounts, real estate holdings, the equity in their home, even an annuity. So even without an employer-provided pension plan, people still can enter retirement knowing they will have enough income for as long as they need it.

The financial transition from work to retirement can be a rocky one, especially for people who haven’t taken the proper steps to prepare. This show provides listeners with a series of six steps they can take to make that transition a smooth one — steps involving Social Security benefits, asset allocation, protection from high healthcare costs, retirement expense projections and retirement income management. By taking these steps sooner rather than later, they’ll not only improve their chances of successfully transitioning to the next stage of life, they also will likely put themselves in a much better position for a financially stable retirement.

Saving for retirement is one thing. Doing so in a way that provides growth and protects the assets can be quite another. This show lays out eight of the most common retirement money mistakes people can make, then gives listeners straightforward, effective strategies to address each of them, so they focus more on making plans and fulfilling them, not worrying if their money will last as long as they need it to.

Saving for retirement is a big, ongoing commitment. But regardless of how much you have saved for retirement or what your retirement date is, have you incorporated strategies to cover healthcare costs? Do you have an estimate of what those costs might be? If not, you may not be as prepared for retirement as you thought. This show provides listeners with key strategies that are flexible yet straightforward to help meet the changing circumstances of any stage in life, including retirement.

After a quiet, steady and sometimes spectacular bull market in 2017, stock market volatility reared its head again during the first quarter of 2018, raising investors’ anxiety levels and conjuring unpleasant memories of the Great Recession. This show is geared to help spare pre-retirees and retirees the gut-wrenching ride on the stock market rollercoaster by providing them with five financial fundamentals to help protect their assets from volatility — from managing assets to managing income streams to managing mindset, simple approaches listeners can put to work starting today to keep calm and carry on, even when the stock market is behaving unpredictably.

Setting a retirement start date is like pulling the trigger and trying to hit a moving target all rolled into one. Once set, the nagging question for many pre-retirees and retirees alike is, “Did I make the right call on when to retire?” To answer, this show provides a practical assessment of common goals, needs, assets and risks tied to retirement. This assessment will help listeners build flexibility into a sound retirement strategy geared toward supporting that next phase in life.

Am I getting good financial advice for the transition to retirement? It’s a question people must ask themselves, because off-target advice could have negative consequences that reverberate throughout the remainder of their lives. This show provides listeners with the means to obtain a second opinion on the financial guidance they’re getting in advance of retirement, giving them a checklist of seven factors they need to weigh to assess the quality of that guidance, so they can make changes if necessary and find a retirement pathway that connects their assets with their goals.