Andy discusses the ins and outs of mutual fund capital gain distributions, particularly in normal taxable brokerage accounts.

Links in this episode:

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Whether the rule of thumb saying in retirement you'll need about 80% of what you were making in wages is on a gross or net of taxes basis ( 6:49 )
• Understanding why some dividends are "qualified" and some are not, why they're taxed differently, and why dividends from bond funds aren't qualified ( 14:15 )
• Whether the decision to start Social Security sooner vs later would change if Social Security were to no longer be federally taxable ( 22:09 )
• Whether spouses can combine their 401(k) balances ( 27:03 )
• What a Form 5498 is, and if you need it to do your tax return, considering it often isn't available until after April 15th ( 30:27 )
• If you can still make a 2024 Roth IRA or traditional IRA contribution in early-2025 ( 31:40 )
• Whether you can make a contribution to a Roth IRA via transferring shares "in-kind" from a brokerage account ( 37:23 )

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• My company newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Jim Jones. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as transitioning from owning a dental practice into retirement, investing, Social Security, when they got serious about retirement planning, and more!
 
 Links in this episode:

• Jim's podcast - The JimJam

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

 To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Andy and Mike Powers share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• Tariffs: what they are, who pays them, do they cause inflation, etc. ( 9:42 )
• Pros and cons of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS  ( 21:32 )
• Whether or not to hold international stocks ( 37:07 )
• Considerations about whether to de-risk your portfolio and hold more cash a as result of expecting market uncertainty going forward ( 48:21 )
• Options for where to hold cash ( 54:33 )
• Observations and things to consider regarding doing your tax return ( 1:03:20 )
• Data and cyber security considerations ( 1:13:54 )

Links in this episode:

• Mike's article about TIPS - here
• Mike's article on how to freeze your credit - here
• Mike's article on properly reporting US government obligation interest on your tax return - here
• Vanguard's forward-looking forecasts - here
• California's one-time tax return penalty abatement - here

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• My company newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy discussed how to determine how much Roth conversion to do in a particular year (assuming you've decided Roth conversions make sense for you). He walks through how to do a current year income & tax projection, and what tax "targets" or "goals" are commonly used in determining how much conversion to do.

Links in this episode:

• DinkyTown 1040 online tax return projection tool - here
• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Can Donor Advised Funds ("DAFs") be funded with pre-tax IRA money ( 2:22 )
• How to do a backdoor Roth IRA contribution and avoid the pro rata rule if you have pre-tax funds in other IRAs  ( 5:46 )
• What are the must have important things to address and get right in retirement planning, vs what are nice to have optimization things ( 10:51 )
• How come most flat fee advisors don't work with clients with net worth in excess of $10 million ( 19:50 )
• How to invest excess money in taxable brokerage accounts ( 26:21 )
• Can funds or investments in taxable brokerage accounts be exchanged in-kind with others to avoid consequences ( 30:07 )
• Why is the 10-year Treasury bond used as a benchmark for many fixed income products, and why do bond prices change when interest rates change ( 32:49 )
• How to know if you're over-saving ( 38:27 )
• Thoughts about timing in when you take distributions vs doing Qualified Charitable Distributions ("QCDs") to satisfy Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs") ( 41:51 )
• My thoughts on crypto assets ( 46:29 )

To find an "advice only" advisor - www.AdviceOnlyNetwork.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• My company newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with John McLaurin. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as planning for special needs and the "generational" planning involved, investing, Social Security, when they got serious about retirement planning, and more!
 
 Links in this episode:

• The book John mentioned - The Special Needs Planning Guide: How to Prepare for Every Stage of Your Child's Life

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

 To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Andy chats with fellow retirement planner Liz Yoder, CFP®, ChSNC® from Dependent Financial Planning. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics with a particular emphasis on special needs planning and the unique considerations and areas to consider when you or your child has or is likely to have a disability

Links in this episode:

• Liz's advisory company website - Dependent Financial Planning
• Liz's LinkedIn profile - Elizabeth (Wolleben) Yoder

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

Andy discussed seven common scenarios where it might be beneficial to do Roth conversions:

1. You know your income now is much lower than it will be in the future
2. You're married (and may eventually be single)
3. You have large pre-tax accounts
4. Your eventual heirs are likely to be in higher tax situations than you currently are
5. Your plan on moving to a state that will have higher income taxes than your current state
6. You're convinced tax rates will increase markedly in the future
7. You want greater tax "diversity" amongst your investable accounts

Links in this episode:

• Tenon Financial newsletter summarizing the 7 potential Roth conversion scenarios - here

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]

Special guest host, Mike Powers, CPA, PFS, CFP®, from Manuka Financial sits behind the microphone to walk through his 22-point retirement planning checklist, which includes financial, insurance and lifestyle considerations.
 
 Links in this episode:

• Mike's blog post about the retirement planning checklist - here
• George Kinder's life planning three questions - here
• Mike's company's website - Manuka Financial

• Tenon Financial monthly e-newsletter - Retirement Planning Insights
• Facebook group - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Taxes in Retirement)
• YouTube channel - Retirement Planning Education (formerly Retirement Planning Demystified)
• Retirement Planning Education website - www.RetirementPlanningEducation.com

To send Andy questions to be addressed on future Q&A episodes, email [email protected]