In this special guest host episode, Mike Powers and Kirsten Ashbaugh from Manuka Financial talk cybersecurity best practices.

Links in this episode:

• Manuka Financial's website - https://www.manukafinancial.com/

• 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: 

• Why more fund managers don't offer mutual fund-to-ETF conversions ( 5:02 )
• How my firm helps clients prepare for severe market declines, and how we communicate bad markets to them ( 8:48 )
• Who's the voice of the intro and outro to this podcast ( 16:06 )
• For spouses claiming Social Security, what's a good claiming strategy when one spouse doesn't have enough work history to get their own benefit and can only get spousal benefits ( 17:19 )
• Could a person continue to fund a 529 for their children and later transfer the beneficiary to eventual grandchildren ( 21:37 )
• What constitutes a gift of digital assets; is it the transfer of the key to the wallet? ( 24:01 )
• What date/time is used for the date of death valuation of assets, like crypto, that trade 24/7 ( 25:52 )
• How will the sale of a vacation property impact IRMAA ( 26:55 )
• How will the sale of a vacation property impact Roth conversion analysis and trying to fill up a certain tax bracket ( 28:46 )
• Why were the recent 3 and 5-year returns of total bond market funds so poor ( 32:48 )
• Making estimated payments or withholdings to cover the tax obligations from a Roth conversion done late in the year ( 41:39 )
• Thoughts on a listener's proposed basic retirement plan, investment allocation and bucketing strategy ( 47:20 )

• The Smart Money, Fresh Minds podcast - here
• My YouTube video on Estimated Taxes, Tax Withholdings and Underpayment Penalties - 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 chats with real people (not advisors) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Rob Berger, the creator of the Rob Berger YouTube channel, the founder of the former DoughRoller website, published author and more!. They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when he started getting serious about retirement planning and a variety of financial topics such as Social Security, investing, how he plans to address any potential long term care scenarios and more!

Links in this episode:

• Rob's YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@rob_berger
• Rob's website - https://robberger.com/

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

• Should someone delay their planned retirement if the markets are bad ( 6:50 )
• Should someone cancel or delay taking a big trip in retirement if the markets are bad ( 13:48 )
• Should someone start Social Security earlier than they were otherwise planning to since there appears to be increased uncertainty about the future strength of the system ( 18:22 )
• Do people need to make estimated tax payments in retirement ( 26:44 )
• If someone has never worked with an advisor and has always DIY'd their own planning, should they continue to DIY it in retirement ( 32:49 )
• Are inheritances taxable, and what should people do with them ( 41:58 )
• Tax smart ways to do charitable giving in retirement ( 54:01 )
• Do gift givers or receivers of gifts have to pay tax on gifts ( 57:49 )

Links in this episode:

• Brian's firm - Truly Prosper Financial Planning
• Sara Grillo's list of flat fee advisors - here
• Advisors in the Advice Only Network - 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 provides some tips and best practices to help keep your ID and financial information secure. Specifically:

• Check your credit report regularly
• Freeze your credit
• Get a tax return filing PIN from the IRS
• Use strong and unique passwords for all websites and online accounts
• Use a password manager
• Use two-factor (if not multi-factor) authentication wherever possible
• Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) whenever on public Wi-Fi
• Use separate e-mails for different types of accounts
• Put a "Self-Lock" on your SSN within the E-Verify system
• Lock your SIM card with your cellular provider
• Be cognizant of phishing and vishing scams
• Be mindful of protection physical information and items

Links in this episode:

• Transunion credit freeze - here
• Experian credit freeze - here
• Equifax credit freeze - here
• www.MyFICO.com
• www.CheckFreeScore.com
• IRS PIN info - here
• E-Verify Self-Lock info - here
• FTC article about how to spot phishing - here
• AARP article about how to spot vishing - 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

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• Buffer ETFs and whether they can be used as replacements for CDs in building a ladder for upcoming years' expenses ( 4:29 )
• His thoughts on direct indexing and whether it's worth doing to try to make non-qualified accounts for tax-efficient ( 14:11 )
• Whether or not it's practical to implement a bucketing strategy ( 23:38 )
• Considerations to put into a will when there is a beneficiary who may be contentious or difficult to deal with ( 34:18 )
• Estate size exemptions and considerations for spouses splitting up accounts ( 42:55 )
• Annualizing income on Form 2210 when making estimated payments and income earned or recognized is lumpy or uneven throughout the year ( 48:37 )
• The "Kiddie Tax" and when it applies ( 54:27 )

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

In this special edition "real" person chat, Andy talks with four different people who went through "gray" divorce (i.e. divorcing later in life; typically over the age of 50), to learn what they wish they would have known or done differently as they were going through the divorce process. 
 

• 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 Mark Rosinski, CFP®, CPA from Dunes Financial. 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, how to know when people have enough to retire, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Mark's advisory company website - Dunes Financial

• https://www.kitces.com/
• Wade Pfau - Retirement Planning Guidebook: https://www.amazon.com/Retirement-Planning-Guidebook-Navigating-Important/dp/194564009X
• Retirement & IRA Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-retirement-and-ira-show/id656868743
• All-In Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-in-with-chamath-jason-sacks-friedberg/id1502871393
• The Drive Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peter-attia-drive/id1400828889
• The Retirement Nerds: https://www.youtube.com/@Theretirementnerds
• Car Dealership Guy: https://x.com/GuyDealership
• Colin Stroud: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gosomewhere/
  • His points service website: https://www.gosomewhere.world/
• Ramit Sethi MoneyDials: https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/money-dials/

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 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