Andy chats with a real person (not an advisor) doing their own retirement planning. In this episode, Andy talks with Alison (last name not disclosed). They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as the unique planning considerations of having a spouse who's nearly 10 years younger and how an unexpected major medical condition a few years ago resulted in her being on long term disability, presumably through when she starts Social Security. They also talk about about what she wishes she would have known earlier and a variety of financial topics such as Social Security, how they got a late start in getting serious about saving for retirement and more!

Links in this episode:

• 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 Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, CPWA® from The Retirement Answer Man podcast. In this episode they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as tax planning, investing, annuities, how to help advise people get over the hurdle of not wanting to spend their money, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Roger's website - The Retirement Answer Man
• Bronnie Ware's book - The Top Five Regrets of the Dying
• Roger's workbook of info and questions about - Finding a Trusted Advisor

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 summarizes the tax-related concepts to know when giving to charities, and summarizes a few ways in which to make your charitable donations as tax-efficient for you as possible

Links in this episode:

• IRS Publication 526 - here
• My YouTube video - How to Give to Charities Tax Efficiently
• My YouTube video - Overview of Federal Income Taxation

• 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]

We're switching things up a bit! In this week's episode, guest host Mike Powers (from Manuka Financial; was a previous guest on the podcast) chats with the show's host, Andy Panko from Tenon Financial.

In the episode, they talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics and Andy's view and approach toward them, such as tax planning, distribution strategies, investing, annuities, long-term care insurance, how to help advise people who are spending more than planned, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Andy' company's website - Tenon Financial
• Ed Slott's blog - The Slott Report
• Ed Slott's paid membership group for advisors - Elite IRA Advisor Group
• Michael Kitces blog - here
• Jeff Levine's X (formerly Twitter) page - here
• Bob Keebler home page - here
• Natalie Choate's book - Life & Death Planning for Retirement Benefits
• Investment News - www.InvestmentNews.com
• Wall Street Journal - www.WSJ.com
• Roger Whitney's Podcast - The Retirement Answer Man
• Jim Saulnier & Chris Stein's podcast - The Retirement & IRA Show
• Benjamin Brandt's podcast - Retirement Starts Today Radio
• Victor Medina's podcast - Retirease Radio
• Rob Berger's YouTube channel - here

• Mike's article about the questions to ask a prospective advisor - 9 Questions to Ask a Flat Fee (or any!) Financial Advisor as You Near Retirement

• My article about why it's disingenuous for advisors to pretend they can quantify their value in - How Much Are Your Services Worth?

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: 

• Can you retroactively increase your income for a prior tax year ( 2:37 )
• How to find a retirement planning tax specialist ( 8:16 )
• How the Medicare IRMAA premium surcharge income lookback works ( 17:24 )
• Determining how much mega back door Roth contributions to do ( 22:02 )
• Is it okay to employ your child part-time in your small business to give them earnings so you can contribute to a Roth IRA for them ( 28:07 )
• My thoughts on "bullet" maturity bond ETFs ( 31:30 )
• Whether reducing withdrawal rates or setting up a bucketing system eliminates Sequence of Returns Risk in retirement ( 43:27 )

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

Links in this episode:

• List of flat-free retirement planner referrals - here
• Link to the Facebook group post about Sequence of Returns Risk - here
• My YouTube video on Sequence of Returns Risk - 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 Jane (an anonymous name). They talk about a wide array of retirement planning topics such as when she started getting serious about retirement planning, what she wishes she would have known earlier, what she learned from seeing her parents go through a long term care event with her father, and a variety of financial topics such as Social Security, investing, how she and her husband plan to address their own potential long term care scenarios and more!

Links in this episode:

• 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 Victor Medina, CFP®, RICP®, CELA® from Palante Wealth. 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 help advise people who are spending more than planned, what consumers often overlook in retirement planning and much more!

Links in this episode:

• Victor's company's website - Palante Wealth
• Victor's podcast - Retirease Radio
• Simon Sinek website - 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

I'm a buffoon and I missed including another important pro of doing an employer plan-to-IRA rollover in episode #110's list of pros and cons of rollovers. The additional potential pro is the ability to do Qualified Charitable Distributions ("QCDs") out of the IRA if you're at least 70 1/2 and charitably inclined.

So, the recap the full list of pros (including QCDs) and cons of doing an employer plan-to-IRA rollover:

Potential PROS of rolling over an employer plan to an IRA or Roth IRA:

• More investment options
• Likely lower fees and costs
• Access to professional advice
• Better control over tax withholdings
• More withdrawal options
• Less Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs") to manage
• Less financial clutter
• Gain the ability to do Qualified Charitable Distributions ("QCD")

Potential CONS of rolling over an employer plan to an IRA or Roth IRA:

• May lose the ability to take early distributions without penalty
• May lose the ability to cleanly do backdoor Roth IRA contributions
• May lose the ability to continue to delay RMDs from that plan (if you're still working at that employer)
• Lose the ability to take loans from the money
• May lose the ability to take advantage of Net Unrealized Appreciation ("NUA") of company stock
• May lose access to a stable value or managed income portfolio investment option
• Potentially less creditor protection

Links in this episode:

• 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 summarizes the pros and cons of rolling over an employer plan (such as a 401(k), 403(b), 401(a), 457 or the federal Thrift Savings Plan) to an IRA or Roth IRA. To sum up:

Potential PROS of rolling over an employer plan to an IRA or Roth IRA:

• More investment options
• Likely lower fees and costs
• Access to professional advice
• Better control over tax withholdings
• More withdrawal options
• Less Required Minimum Distributions ("RMDs") to manage
• Less financial clutter

Potential CONS of rolling over an employer plan to an IRA or Roth IRA:

• May lose the ability to take early distributions without penalty
• May lose the ability to cleanly do backdoor Roth IRA contributions
• May lose the ability to continue to delay RMDs from that plan (if you're still working at that employer)
• Lose the ability to take loans from the money
• May lose the ability to take advantage of Net Unrealized Appreciation ("NUA") of company stock
• May lose access to a stable value or managed income portfolio investment option
• Potentially less creditor protection

Links in this episode:

• Summary of the creditor protection of IRAs and Roth IRAs by state - 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]

Listener Q&A where Andy talks about: 

• How to know if your 401(k) is good ( 5:57 )
• Is it safer to bank at multiple banks instead of just one ( 14:33 )
• How much tax should you withhold from your Social Security ( 21:10 )
• Whether each spouse needs to take out excess Roth IRA contributions if only one spouse's income put their Married Filing Joint total income over the Roth IRA contribution eligibility threshold ( 25:20 )
• Should you hire an advisor for a one-time Roth conversion analysis and plan if they claim it can save you millions in lifetime taxes ( 27:20 )
• Should you own international stocks in your stock allocation ( 31:58 )

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

Links in this episode:

• Form W-4V to have federal taxes withhold from your Social Security payments - here
• Dinkytown online tax return calculator - here
• My YouTube video on fixing excess Roth IRA contributions - here
• My article about the futility of trying to quantify the value of Roth conversions - 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