Andy discusses the different options for holding cash and cash equivalents (i.e. things that are principal protected, offer some amount of interest and are highly liquid and readily accessible)

The options are:

• Physical bills and coins
• Checking accounts
• Savings accounts
• Certificates of Deposit, or CD's
• Money Market Mutual Funds or Exchanged Traded Funds that invest like Money Market Mutual Funds
• Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities, or MYGA's (but hear why he doesn't fully consider them cash equivalents)

Links in this episode:

• FDIC insurance calculator - https://edie.fdic.gov/calculator.html
• https://www.treasurydirect.gov/
• Tenon Financial's May 2026 Newsletter/blog - Options for holding cash and cash equivalents

• 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]

Guest host Mark Rosinski, CFP®, CPA, RICP®, from Dunes Financial does a "hot topics" episode where he talks about:

• US Government obligation interest and what to look for on your consolidated 1099 to make sure you properly reflect the state income tax treatment on your tax return ( 9:06 )
• Understanding and tracking after-tax "basis" in inherited IRAs ( 20:14 )
• Required Minimum Distribution ("RMD") aggregation rules ( 25:03 )
• Potentially doubling up contributions to governmental 457 employer retirement plans, and other unique aspects of 457 plans ( 33:27 )
• Different approaches for investing money during the period where income from working has stopped but Social Security has not yet been started. Options include total return, bond ladders, bucket strategies, and hybrid approaches ( 46:35 )

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

Links in this episode:

• Mark's company's website - https://www.dunesfinancial.com/
• Mark's first time on the Retirement Planning Education podcast - #146 – Retirement planner chat, with Mark Rosinski from Dunes Financial
• Mark's second time on the Retirement Planning Education podcast - #165 - "Hot topics" edition...Andy and Mark Rosinski talk about different withdrawal strategies, rule of 55 distributions, allocating the stock portion of a portfolio and MORE!
• Andy's YouTube video - IRA after-tax "basis," the pro rata rule and Form 8606

• Tenon Financial monthly newsletter/blog - 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

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Correction to a previous Q&A episode regarding taxation of lump sum Social Security benefits paid in one year for benefits attributable to the prior year ( 9:54 )
• His thoughts on artificial intelligence and how it can impact the financial planning industry ( 13:00 )
• The "withhold and replace" method of paying taxes when doing IRA distributions or conversions and using the indirect 60-day rollover approach to ultimately pay taxes out of your bank or brokerage account, but with the benefit of doing it via withholdings from the IRA ( 20:30 )
• Step DOWN in basis when inheriting assets that have declined in value from where the original owner bought them ( 31:46 )
• When having a pension available, instead of selecting a payment option that lives on for your spouse upon your death, instead taking the payment option that stops when you pass, and using the difference in the larger payment amount to buy life insurance for the benefit of your spouse ( 40:00 )
• His thoughts on using a TIPS ladder ( 45:29 )
• Whether to invest money or instead use it to buy long term care insurance. Such as deciding between making an $8,000 Roth 401(k) catchup contribution, or using some or all of that $8,000 to buy long term care insurance ( 50:48 )
• At what point does larger investable asset size or net worth start to lead to the need to have a more complex portfolio, or to invest in non-traditional assets like private investments, alternatives, etc. ( 54:31 )

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

Links in this episode:

• Tenon Financial monthly newsletter/blog - 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

Special edition 200th episode where Andy shares some of his observations about the financial services industry from his time working in it:

• Creating good and consistent content is hard to do and do well ( 9:32 )
• A lot of content is just clickbait to get your views and/or advertise something to you, and not actually good content ( 13:15 )
• Personal finance is a lot more personal than it is finance ( 17:40 )
• The vast majority (all?) of long-term retirement planning is ultimately just a lot of educated guesses and there is no way to create a perfect or infallible retirement plan ( 21:46 )
• Roth conversions are given too much attention and emphasis ( 28:15 )
• There are a lot of reasons to not like the financial services industry, and most (all?) of the industry is ultimately out to get you to buy something from them ( 33:30 )
• Most of the people in the industry are really good people and do really good work, but they just might not be working in a company or structure that prioritizes the client ( 37:52 )
• There is continued growth and momentum in financial advisors providing planning-focused services at more logical fee structures and service offerings ( 42:17 )
• Tax planning is getting more attention and more advisors are learning about and offering tax planning ( 43:50 )
• The percent of assets under management model doesn't make sense. There are other fee structures that are less illogical, less unfair, less arbitrary in what they charge ( 46:46 )
• The financial services and advisory industry is unfortunately really fragmented between different "factions" of companies, services, products, etc., and it ends up being a disservice to consumers ( 53:12 )
• Tax return prep is a hard business. Please be kind and considerate in dealing with tax preparers, especially in February, March and April! :-) ( 1:00:36 )
  
  

Links in this episode:

• Episode 100 of the Retirement Planning Education podcast - #100 – 100th episode celebration!!! Andy's 100 words of retirement planning wisdom

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 and Jonathan Vance from Vance Financial Planning share their thoughts on a handful of current events and "hot topics" relating to retirement planning. Specifically, they talk about: 

• Given current world affairs and their impacts on the markets, should you do anything different with your investments, or are there any other planning opportunities to consider ( 14:20 )
• Tax updates for 2026, and some recap of tax takeaways for 2025 now that the 2025 tax return season is mostly behind us ( 26:27 )
• Using in-kind gifts to family and friends to get rid of appreciated non-qualified assets you no longer want, but don't want to sell and realize the gains ( 38:45 )
• The importance of having a good grasp on your future expenses and how that impacts virtually all aspects of retirement planning ( 46:00 )
• The practicality of the "die with zero" concept, and how Monte Carlo can help try to put it into practice ( 1:00:48 )
• Questions to ask when interviewing a financial advisor ( 1:11:54 )
• Options for what to do with permanent life insurance policies or annuities you might no longer want, or are no longer in your best interest ( 1:23:10 )

Links in this episode:

• Vance Financial Planning website - https://www.vancefp.com
• Manuka Financial's article, 9 Questions to ask a Flat Fee (or any!) Financial Advisor as you Near Retirement - 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 discusses the pros and cons of taking a lump sum vs taking monthly payments for your pension, questions to ask yourself to help figure out if it might be better for you to take one vs the other, and other considerations to keep in mind in making the decision

Links in this episode:

• www.ImmediateAnnuities.com
• www.PBGC.gov
• Tenon Financial's April 2026 newsletter - Whether to take a pension as a lump sum or monthly payments

• 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]

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• How often to check your accounts for rebalancing, and how often to check on your bigger picture finances and plan ( 2:32 )
• What to do with old positions you no longer want in a brokerage account but they all have large unrealized gains ( 16:03 )
• How Medi-Cal benefits interact with a high deductible health plan and an HSA (spoiler alert...I don't know!) ( 22:20 )
• Are there any good reasons to leave old/prior employer 401(k) plans where they are ( 25:31 )
• Tracking Roth IRA contributions (including money inherited from a deceased spouse's Roth 401(k)) ( 29:50 )
• The mechanics of separating the cream from the coffee when rolling pre-tax money in an IRA to a 401(k) to leave behind in the IRA just the after-tax basis, and potential gotchas with that process ( 33:41 )
• Are potentially large RMDs really a threat to someone's financial plan, or just a pain ( 42:37 )
• Additional thoughts on whether to pay off a mortgage before retirement, particularly if using pre-tax funds (like from a 401(k)) to do it, even if the interest rate on the loan is really low ( 49:45 )
• Why Roth money within a 401(k) isn't actually in its own separate account, but is instead just an internal accounting record type of "sub" account ( 53:04 )
• Tax-free conversions of mutual fund share classes to ETF share classes of the same fund, where available ( 59:02 )
• Thoughts on rental property vs bank CD's for purposes of estate transfer, tax implications and general retirement plan considerations ( 1:03:23 )

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

Links in this episode:

• My article about pros and cons of rolling over old employer plans to an IRA - here

• 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 Kellerman. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when he started getting serious about planning for retirement, how he now spends his days in retirement, what he's doing for health insurance since he's not yet on Medicare and why he's at the local prison each week...
 
 Links in this episode:

• Puritas tax prep software (including for Form 709 gift tax returns) - 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]

Andy chats with fellow retirement planner Bradley Hilton, CFP®, TPCP®, MBA from Sonas Financial Planning. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as tax planning, distribution strategies, investing, annuities, long-term care insurance, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Bradley's advisory company website - https://www.sonasfp.com/ or https://www.sonasfinancialplanning.com

• Tax Foundation summary of state-level estate and inheritance taxes (as of 2025) - here 

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 discusses the ins and outs of gifting, the annual gift exclusion, gift splitting, gift taxes, gift tax returns (IRS Form 709) and more!

Links in this episode:

• Tenon Financial's March newsletter/blog about gifting - here
• IRS Form 709 - 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]