Secure Your Retirement

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss this quarter's market and economic update with Tom Siomades, from the Federal Reserve's latest rate increase to the oil prices that have kept inflation elevated for about seven months. Tom explains why a quarter-point hike won't make a dent in energy-driven inflation, what the Iran conflict means for shipping and fuel costs, and why he sees the rest of the economy in better shape than the headlines suggest.

Listen in to learn about how interest rates, inflation, and oil prices affect retirement investing, why AI stocks are still helping lead the stock market while small caps keep pace, and why fixed income has become a meaningful part of retirement portfolios again. Tom closes with his market outlook for the end of 2026, and Radon connects it to what matters most for your retirement income planning and your peace of mind in retirement.

In this episode, find out:

• Why Tom sees the Fed's 25 basis point rate hike as more of a signal than a solution
• How elevated oil prices get built into the cost of everyday goods, and why those costs are slow to come back out
• What the broader economy looks like when you set the rate hike and the conflict aside
• How AI stocks, small caps, and higher yields on fixed income are shaping the stock market this year
• Tom's year-end market call, and why planning for a down year belongs in every retirement plan

Tweetable quotes

"You go to the gas station and they seem to raise the price of gas literally by the minute, and then it takes them weeks and weeks and weeks to lower it." (Tom Siomades)

"Fixed income is actually meaningful again for people's portfolios." (Tom Siomades)

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary phone conversation with Secure Your Retirement!

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss the emotional side of the transition into retirement with clients Vid and Nupam Desai. Vid recently took early retirement after six years as chief information officer at the FDA, capping a 40-year career in pharmaceuticals, clinical research and medical devices. Nupam is still leading her team at Lenovo and planning her own retirement over the next couple of years. The four of them talk about learning to live together again, getting comfortable spending money you spent decades saving, and the travel, hobbies and giving back the Desais are planning for the years ahead.

Listen in to learn about why even the most capable do-it-yourself planners reach a point where handing off taxes and investments brings relief, how seeing a plan on paper helps the logical and emotional sides of retirement catch up with each other, and what couples can expect when one spouse retires first.

In this episode, find out:

• Why Vid calls holding on to his own finances and taxes for too long one of his biggest retirement lessons.
• How seeing their plan on paper helped the Desais start feeling confident about spending.
• What changes at home when one spouse retires and the other keeps working.
• Why Nupam is staying at Lenovo long enough to set her team up to succeed.
• How the Desais picture their first five to ten years of retirement, from six-week stays abroad to community service and the Peace Corps.

Tweetable Quotes:

"While we are financial advisors in this wealth management space, a lot of times what we are is a thought partner."

Murs Tariq

"A lot of times when people come to us, it's emotional. It's an emotional hurdle."

Radon Stancil

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss retiring before your spouse, walking through the specific decisions couples face with early retirement planning when one partner is ready to stop working and the other isn't. This episode covers retirement planning for couples navigating that in-between stretch, including health insurance before Medicare, retirement income planning, and the retirement tax planning tradeoffs that come with a staggered retirement timing decision.

Listen in to learn about the three paths for health insurance before Medicare, why a written retirement income plan protects your future flexibility around Roth conversions in retirement, how Medicare and retirement timing intersect with Social Security planning, and the practical retirement checklist to work through once one spouse decides to retire, including what a 401K to IRA rollover actually involves.

In this episode, find out:

• The three health insurance before Medicare options when one spouse retires early and the other keeps working, and why the obvious choice isn't always the cheapest one
• Why retirement income planning starts with a written plan, and how pulling from the wrong account today can limit your ability to do Roth conversions in retirement later
• How a drop in household income opens a retirement tax planning window, and why you have to pick a priority between Roth conversions, Social Security planning, and health insurance subsidies rather than optimizing all three at once
• What a 401K to IRA rollover really means once you retire. It's a tax-free move, not a taxable event, and it opens up investment options beyond what most 401k plans offer, often with the chance to reduce the fees tied to those plans
• Why planning retirement isn't only about retirement cash flow and taxes, and how thinking through the non-financial side helps you retire comfortably instead of just affordably

Tweetable Quotes:

"Can you put a dollar value to not having to worry about this stuff when you're getting close to retirement?" — Radon Stancil

"The idea is before one of the two retire, understand what the impact of that's going to be and how you're going to play it out so that it's really clear in mind." — Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss what actually happens once a household crosses the $1 million mark in their 401k, and why hitting that number raises new questions instead of settling old ones. They walk through why the balance on your statement isn't the number you actually get to spend, how required minimum distributions can sneak up on even careful savers, and why the investment strategy that built your nest egg isn't the one that should carry you through retirement.

Listen in to learn about the tax traps that catch people off guard when withdrawing from a 401k, why Roth conversions deserve a serious look before required distributions kick in, how the three-bucket strategy protects your income from a bad market at exactly the wrong time, and what changes financially (and it's not what you'd expect) when one spouse passes away.

In this episode, find out:

• Why a $1 million 401k balance is really closer to $650,000 to $700,000 after taxes, and how that mistake trips people up when withdrawing for big expenses
• How required minimum distributions work, and why waiting too long to touch a 401k can create a bigger tax problem later
• Why a Roth conversion strategy, done while both spouses are alive and filing jointly, can meaningfully reduce lifetime taxes
• What sequence of returns risk is, and how the three-bucket strategy (cash, safety and income, growth) protects retirement income from market downturns
• Why moving from a joint tax return to a single filer after a spouse passes away often raises your tax rate, even if your income barely changes

Tweetable Quotes:

"While you see the million on paper, really only about 650 to 700,000 of that's actually yours." — Murs Tariq

"How I take money out of a 401k has some things I've got to think through. So, I've got to think through my taxation. I've got to think through potential problems with IRMAA." — Radon Stancil

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss whether you can truly be a fiduciary and still talk about annuities and walk through exactly when an annuity earns a place in a retirement plan versus when it doesn't.

Listen in to learn about the three-bucket strategy for organizing retirement money, why an income safety bucket targets a specific historical return range instead of chasing the market, how sequence of returns risk can quietly damage a retirement plan, and the honest, no-spin answer to the fee concerns you've probably come across online.

In this episode, find out:

• Why being a fiduciary doesn't rule out recommending an annuity, and why fit matters more than the product category itself
• The three layers of retirement spending (essential needs, wants, and wishes) and how covering the first two changes your relationship with market volatility
• How the three-bucket strategy, cash, growth, and income safety, is designed to prevent the emotional roller coaster of panic selling during a downturn
• Where the high annuity fee reputation actually comes from, and why it's mostly confined to one specific category
• Why sequence of returns risk changes the entire calculation once you're retired and withdrawing income, not just saving

Tweetable Quotes:

"We're not trying to sell the concept, we're saying we like the concept." — Radon Stancil

"This strategy is really there for predictability and reliability in your retirement income." — Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss long-term care, one of the topics that comes up most often with clients, including those who have saved well and still want a clear plan for it. They break down what long-term care actually means, why it's not the nursing-home picture most people assume, and how continuous care retirement communities and in-home care both fit into real financial planning.

Listen in to learn about the two hybrid approaches available today for funding long-term care, a life insurance policy with a built-in long-term care benefit and a long-term care annuity, and why the tax treatment on each one matters more than most people realize when it comes to protecting retirement savings.

In this episode, find out:

• What long-term care actually means, based on the technical definition of needing help with two out of six activities of daily living
• Why continuous care retirement communities offer an independent, resort-style option most people don't expect
• Why Medicare does not cover long-term care, and what gap that leaves in a retirement plan
• How a life insurance policy with a long-term care rider can provide either a tax-free death benefit or tax-free care funding, depending on what happens
• How a long-term care annuity works, including the typical two-to-three-times benefit multiplier and tax-free withdrawals for qualifying care

Tweetable Quotes:

"The technical definition of long-term care is that you have someone that cannot perform two out of the six activities of daily living." - Radon Stancil

"If you don't use the money, if you don't go into long-term care and you end up passing away, there's still a benefit that goes to the beneficiaries." - Murs Tariq (flagged for audio verification before publishing per standard compliance check)

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss the tax problem quietly building for anyone with a large 401(k) or IRA, required minimum distributions, Roth conversions, and the Medicare IRMAA surcharge that catches even careful savers off guard.

Listen in to learn about how RMDs are calculated once you reach your 70s, why a disciplined saving habit can turn into a bigger tax bill than expected, how a Roth conversion strategy can smooth that out over time, and how Medicare's IRMAA surcharge fits into the timing of it all.

In this episode, find out:

• What a required minimum distribution (RMD) actually is, and why it can surprise even the most disciplined savers
• A simple way to estimate what your own future RMD could look like, using nothing more than your current balance and a rough growth assumption
• How a Roth conversion strategy can smooth out RMDs over time, including a real example from POM's tax strategy sessions that projected six figures in lifetime tax savings
• What the Medicare IRMAA surcharge is, why it's tied to your income two years before you enroll, and why it can add hundreds or thousands of dollars a year to your Medicare premium
• Why RMD planning and Medicare IRMAA planning can't be handled separately, and need to be revisited every year as part of a real tax strategy

Tweetable Quotes:

"Not everybody should do a Roth conversion, but everybody should have an analysis done to find out if it makes sense." — Radon Stancil

"A big 401(k) is a good problem to have, but it's still a problem you need a plan for." — Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss one of the biggest sources of investment risk hiding in plain sight for people nearing retirement: a portfolio that has grown large thanks to a handful of Magnificent 7 stocks, and what that means once a paycheck is no longer coming in. They walk through a real conversation with a new client whose accounts had grown substantially through stocks like Nvidia stock, Tesla, and Amazon, and why the retirement investment strategy that builds wealth is not the same one that should carry you through spending it. If you've ever wondered whether your risky investments have quietly become too large a piece of your retirement portfolio, this episode breaks down how to think it through without giving up the gains you've earned.

Listen in to learn about the numbers behind the Magnificent 7 run-up and the very real stock market risk that comes with it, including the 2022 pullback most investors have already forgotten. Radon and Murs unpack sequence of returns risk, why retirement risk management looks completely different once withdrawals begin, and how their three bucket strategy is built to protect retirement savings while still allowing room for growth. Whether you're actively planning retirement, working through a retirement checklist, or simply thinking about how to retire comfortably without one bad year undoing decades of work, this conversation lays out a retirement income strategy built for exactly that moment.

In this episode, find out:

• Why the Magnificent 7 stocks grew so dramatically since 2020, and the specific 2022 declines (Tesla, Meta, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft) that most investors have already forgotten about
• The math behind why a 50% loss requires a 100% gain just to break even, and why that matters so much more once you're living off your retirement portfolio
• How the accumulation phase and the retirement phase call for two completely different approaches to risk, and why what worked to build your wealth can work against you once you retire
• A breakdown of the three bucket strategy, including how the cash, growth, and safety and income buckets work together for real retirement portfolio diversification
• Why you don't have to sell your winning stocks to build a secure retirement financial plan, and how to keep a piece of the growth you're proud of while protecting the rest

Tweetable Quotes:

• "What gets you up the mountain won't get you down. It's a different type of physicality that we need to be able to deal with." — Radon Stancil
• "There's ways to invest when you're growing your assets, and then there's ways to invest when you're trying to have your assets generate and preserve them." — Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon discusses what really happens inside a personalized retirement financial plan, walking through the exact process our Director of Financial Planning and Tax Strategy, Taylor Wolverton, uses with every new client. This episode is built for anyone thinking seriously about financial planning for retirement, whether you're still working, already retired, or somewhere in the middle trying to figure out how to retire without losing sleep over the numbers. Retirement planning strategies only work if they're built on your real accounts and your real goals, not a rough guess, and that's exactly what this conversation breaks down step by step.

Listen in to learn about how a real retirement financial plan gets built from the ground up: mapping every account into a single clear picture, laying out retirement income planning around Social Security and required minimum distributions, and using a retirement spending plan to test what you can actually afford, including the big goals you've been putting off. If you're doing financial planning after 60 and wondering whether your retirement investment strategy and retirement cash flow can support the life you actually want, this episode shows you how that question gets answered with real numbers instead of guesswork.

In this episode, find out:

• How a "blueprint" of your accounts reveals your true net worth, often higher than you'd guess in your head
• Why retirement income planning has to map every source, Social Security, pensions, salary, and required minimum distributions, on its own timeline
• How a retirement spending plan and goals section let you test big one-time expenses, like travel or a kitchen renovation, against your long-term numbers
• Why a retirement financial plan gets projected all the way to age 90, and what a rising or falling balance actually tells you
• How conservative assumptions on returns and inflation give your retirement checklist room to work even if the market underperforms

Tweetable Quotes:

"I don't care how much money people have. They think they're going to run out." - Radon Stancil

"It is hard for people to go from saving, saving, saving to spending, spending, spending, and it can be a scary transition." - Radon Stancil

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

New Trump accounts are now open for enrollment, and the question we're hearing from clients isn't whether they're worth considering. It's how they stack up against the accounts families have already been using for years, 529 plans, UTMA and UGMA custodial accounts, brokerage accounts, and Roth or traditional IRAs for kids. This episode is the follow-up to our first Trump accounts conversation, and it's the one to listen to if you're trying to figure out which account, or which combination of accounts, actually fits your family's goals.

Taylor Wolverton, our Director of Financial Planning and Tax Strategy, joins Murs Tariq again to walk through each option side by side. They cover contribution limits, tax treatment, distribution restrictions, and the one detail about Roth IRAs that most social media advice leaves out entirely. There's no single best account here, and that's the point. The right strategy usually combines two or three of these tools, and this episode gives you the framework to figure out which ones belong in yours.

In this episode, find out:

• Why Trump accounts don't require your child to have earned income, and how that changes the math compared to a Roth IRA
• How the Trump-account-to-Roth conversion works once your child turns 18, and why timing it right could mean decades of tax-free growth
• What's changed about 529 plans that makes them far more flexible than the version most parents remember, including the new Roth rollover option
• The real trade-off behind UTMA and UGMA custodial accounts, and why control matters more than most families realize until it's gone
• The one requirement missing from nearly every "open your kid a Roth IRA" post you see online, and what to do about it if your kids aren't earning yet

Tweetable Quotes:

"There's not one that's just like, quote unquote, best. It really depends on what your goal is with these accounts and what you're trying to accomplish." — Taylor Wolverton

"The Trump account kind of helps you navigate building that wealth without having to worry as much about earned income." — Murs Tariq

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement! To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.